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WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

forbes.com

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Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#401

Post by t_akosuke »

madrox wrote: post #163

I'm sure Acton and Koum told themselves they were also keeping the power to be in control. I'm sure they went into it thinking they could avoid this end. The brain is a powerful rationalizer when it sees generational wealth within reach. The indignant tone of the comments here make me laugh. There are very few things I can imagine readers of HN not doing for a billion dollars. People may say otherwise, but until they…

I am not fully familiar with the whole story, but given the different paths Acton and Koum have taken (activism vs collecting cars and chilling on a boat) i wouldn't be surprised that they had a disagreement about whether to sell and one of them prefer to back down. who knows, maybe he even preferred to keep Koum's friendship. Their very different backgrounds also point towards different motivations in a situation like this. I don't know if I'm being silly cos I don't know how these things work, but I'm also surprised nobody has talked about this possibility

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#402

Post by konschubert »

mattnewport wrote: post #7

This article seems a little unfair to the WhatsApp founders when it suggests they should have known that any assurances Facebook made to them as part of the acquisition were obviously lies. Sure in 2018 it might be obvious to most of us that nothing Facebook says or promises can be trusted but I don't think that was necessarily as obvious when the acquisition happened and they can be forgiven for thinking they weren'…

When I heard about Facebook's assurances in 2014 and heard that they would remove the subscription fee, I asked myself "Then why did they buy it?"

I had 0 knowledge about business back then and even u could figure out that something didn't add up.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#403

Post by t_akosuke »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #397
uxcolumbo wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Messaging apps nowadays also allow you to send images and even videos. How would you handle those? Or only allow sending text when the other person is offline?

I agree that once you start adding features like images and videos that it tips the balance more toward centralization. > Or only allow sending text when the other person is offline? I think that is an excellent idea. Also I'd propose a vector-based image format with a maximum file size and fixed resolution (for online and offline messages). That way you could send drawings and diagrams without increasing the data re…

there's plenty of people willing to accept less features for more booty - check out tinder

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#404

Post by Marsymars »

Markoff wrote: post #399
Marsymars wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ads won't be targeted based on your messages. They'll just be targeted based on all the other info FB has on you.

what if you don't use Facebook and only use WhatsApp? not much information besides contacts and rough location

They can do quite a lot with your phone number and contacts: https://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-giving-advertisers-access-to...

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#405

Post by WillPostForFood »

nostrademons wrote: post #237
WillPostForFood wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange was founded in 1790, NYSE in 1792. If something changed in the 1980s, it wasn’t the stock market.

The doctrine of what the purpose of business is changed in the 1980s. During the post-WW2 era the prevailing view was that the purpose of business was to "create a customer", and as a result, corporations existed primarily for consumer benefit. Read Drucker for elaboration on this, and it's also still assumed in many economics textbooks of that period. Starting in 1970, Milton Friedman argued that the sole purpose of…

Yes, so something changed, and it wasn't the stock market.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#406

Post by touristtam »

samat wrote: post #387
lpolovets wrote: post #325

Here's an interesting post about the departure from the perspective of a Facebook exec: https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-marcus/the-other-side-o...

“About connecting people”. Well, and getting as many eyeballs on the newsfeed ads as (in)humanely possible. Does that count as connecting people?

Probably in the same way a company is a legal person in from of the law.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#407

Post by myroon5 »

lpolovets wrote: post #325

Here's an interesting post about the departure from the perspective of a Facebook exec: https://www.facebook.com/notes/david-marcus/the-other-side-o...

His first point being that Zuckerberg defended Whatsapp's request for a spacious, quiet place to work is bizarre to me. That doesn't seem like a huge concession to grant a small company after purchasing them for ~$20B.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#408

Post by uxcolumbo »

EthanHeilman wrote: post #397
uxcolumbo wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Messaging apps nowadays also allow you to send images and even videos. How would you handle those? Or only allow sending text when the other person is offline?

I agree that once you start adding features like images and videos that it tips the balance more toward centralization. > Or only allow sending text when the other person is offline? I think that is an excellent idea. Also I'd propose a vector-based image format with a maximum file size and fixed resolution (for online and offline messages). That way you could send drawings and diagrams without increasing the data re…

Yeah I like your vector-based image idea. It would make it look unique and still be usable.

I've already got some ideas about potential UX flows for this...

And I think it there is a big enough community that would use this kind of messaging system.

Build things that don't scale - so they say ;)

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#409

Post by johannes1234321 »

scarface74 wrote: post #294
johannes1234321 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they don't have the support from their stakeholders they shouldn't give such a promise. In this specific case Mark Zuckerberg holds controlling amount of the stock.

In corporate America, you always get support as long as things are going well. As soon as things go badly, people look for scapegoats. I’ve had a manager before who supported everything I was doing but when he was let go, I was left hanging in the wind. I’ve slso had a manager who wouldn’t listen to me (I was the Dev lead), everything failed in just the way I warned it would and I could see he was going to blame me.…

There is a difference between a low tier manager telling stuff on day to day business and negotiations during a multi billion acquisition.

Re: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton on Why He Left $850M Behind

#410

Post by hackandtrip »

s_dev wrote: post #175
hackandtrip wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would have stopped working in a few years: nowadays lot of different people stopped using WhatsApp almost entirely using Facebook Messanger / Telegram / etc. 1$/year is just too low-proft and too risky

>1$/year is just too low-proft Thats moving goal posts -- the claim was that WhatsApp was unmonetizable not that it could generate super normal profits.

Unmonetizable and "super normal profits" for a 19B product can be really close in the scale used by business people
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