Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services Rounded to the nearest meaningful number - 0%
it's probably under 0% even including the 2% error margin.
Rounding up
WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
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Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#62Would be nice if these kinds of articles would at least take a paragraph to plug some alternatives, such as Signal.
As always network effect will be the problem. I know plenty of people on WhatsApp and almost nobody on Signal
Network effects aren't a big deal when it comes to messaging. There was a time when people thought iPhone wouldn't be able to overcome Blackberry because everyone was on BBM. In the last couple decades we've seen people go from ICQ to AIM/Yahoo/MSN to Google Talk to Skype to Facebook Messenger to BBM to Whatsapp/iMessage/Instagram, with dozens of smaller options like Kik, Viber, Line, Signal, Telegram all hanging around. It doesn't take much to cause another shift in the space.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#63There’s something particularly paternalistic about this statement from the PM: “Your personal messages, calls and statuses, they will remain end-to-end encrypted”.
Any man who must say, "I am the King", is no true king.
Any tech company who must say, "we don't harvest your information", is a tech company that harvests your information.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#64Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…
I’d love to know the expected ad revenue per user for makers of apps like WhatsApp, Instagram. I’m pretty convinced I’d pay 10x or more than that amount for a completely ad free version but I can’t be sure.
I'm not sure if the number was for Facebook specifically or all Meta apps, but they did quote a number of around $70 revenue per year per US user a while ago. (with (much) lower numbers in other parts of the world)
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#65Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…
Most people go absolutely mentally deranged by a simple magical incantation. The powerful incantation or spell consists of only one word: "Free". That word will make people loose their mind and their soul.
It will make people accept anything and everything that they would never otherwise accept. They will line up for hours, they will accept hostile and toxic messages being screamed into their faces, they will humiliate themselves, they will spend sleepless nights, they will willingly enslave themselves, they will wither away in sickness, they will murder millions in the most cruel way imaginable.
All for "free".
Societies in our history were not arranged in the same way around money, because probably there was some knowledge of the two-sided curse of avarice and stinginess. I'm talking about medieval and post-medieval society, where most people didn't use or have money in their everyday life. Instead they had duties.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#66Does anybody have stats on how many people are O.K. paying for their core services, i.e. how many people pay for paid personal e-mail services? I just don't want to believe that our services have to be paid for through proxy by giving huge cut to 3rd parties. The quality goes down both as UX and as core content, our attention span is destroyed, our privacy is violated and our political power is being stolen as conten…
I can say from experience and from others who have been in this position (not email, but general services); its around 1-2% of people. Nebula, the answer to the tyranny of Youtube (who works for advertisers), has a I could write pages about this, but I wish I could violently shake all the children (many who are now in their 40's) that so deeply feel entitled to free content on the internet, and scream "If you are not…
Video is impossible to break into because of how expensive it is. Even YouTube by all accounts is just breaking even. And that is with Google's entire infrastructure and advertising machinery behind it. A new entrant simply doesn't stand a chance.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember WhatsApp costing money, 1$ per year or per lifetime or something. I paid for it, I think it was a WinRar situation though, where deleting and reinstalling the app gave it to you for free or something. I'm guessing most people didn't pay though, since they scraped the fee (even before FB bought them). I guess it was just too little money to be worth the effort.
Yep I paid for Whatsapp, I've even dug out the receipt email. I want my £0.79 back!
Three years of WhatsApp service for phone just 2,67$... In 2015...
So I think I got that...
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#68> When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks. This sort of analysis is very surface-level I think. My impression is WhatsApp offered that by running on VC money and had no plan to run an actual business. That's not a question of focus. It's an unsustainable, please monetise me later land grab.
Youtube was the same. Both are products that people really want to use.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#69Does anyone know what's the state of the art way for cutting crap out of android apps? In the same way adblock cuts crap out of web pages? I assume one would need a Java disassembler at least. On desktop, something like recaf works and allows changing things in classes without the full recompilation. Is there something like this for android?
DNS blocking with tools like DNSNet get you halfway there without tampering with the apps. It installs itself like a VPN and filters dns requests to ad domains using lists from the same sources as the adblockers.
I say halfway because some apps have a fallback, built-in, ad when it can't reach the server, other serve the ads from their own servers so no way to block them. Most only leave a blank space.
Re: WhatsApp introduces ads in its app
#70Does anyone know what's the state of the art way for cutting crap out of android apps? In the same way adblock cuts crap out of web pages? I assume one would need a Java disassembler at least. On desktop, something like recaf works and allows changing things in classes without the full recompilation. Is there something like this for android?
DNS blocking with tools like DNSNet get you halfway there without tampering with the apps. It installs itself like a VPN and filters dns requests to ad domains using lists from the same sources as the adblockers. I say halfway because some apps have a fallback, built-in, ad when it can't reach the server, other serve the ads from their own servers so no way to block them. Most only leave a blank space.
More than halfway I'd say. It blocks everything from third party ad networks, which is what 90%+ of websites and apps use.