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Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

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Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#71

Post by enewcomer »

doczoidberg wrote: post #58

The key success of Whatsapp is IMHO that it uses your phone's address book as contact list. There is no hurdle to use it what is very important for the average user. The multi platform support from beginning is second thing. J2ME as stated in the article is negligible. I can't understand why this article is on top of HN.

The phone number as an id is a very important component to their adoption indeed. So do you posit that WhatsApp's adoption rates being what they are (compared to say Viber which does the same thing) is purely due to first mover?

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#72

Post by ville »

sschueller wrote: post #32
terhechte wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WhatsApp is also really strong here in Germany and other parts of Europe. More of my friends are on WhatsApp than Facebook (only very few more though).

These numbers are going to drop significantly now. Everyone I talk to is unhappy about the acquisition and will switch to something else like telegram.

I'd say more than 99.9% of WhatsApp users haven't heard of Telegram.

WhatsApp users are mostly not early adopters like you and your friends. They are ordinary people, because WhatsApp is is a simple communication tool targeted to everyone. And that's why they keep doubling their user base.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#73

Post by enewcomer »

keerthiko wrote: post #69

This. This is the answer I have always looked for. > "But, but, how is WhatsApp any different than iMessage / Facebook Messenger / Hangouts?" I have made this exclamation multiple times, and my friends in India and Singapore and other parts of Asia just turned up their palms with a "I dunno, everyone uses it and told me to get it." I refused to use it since I like to use as few messaging platforms as possible (just G…

You only need one friend you care about using a Blackberry or Nokia for it to matter though. The long tail matters when it comes to communication.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#75

Post by netcan »

nicpottier wrote: post #17
coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

Ya.. that is definitely the takeaway. If you address all platforms, your market is suddenly both under served and absolutely huge.

One such "platform" is made up of the 80% of android phones that are cheap and basic with small data plans and limited access to slow wifi.

The anecdotes from the 80s & 90s when annual PC sales for any given year were a substantial portion of the overall PCs in use at the time are interesting. The realization that software could be written for the newest machine and it would run everywhere soon enough is not directly applicable to the smartphone market. I think that out of collective habit, many apps assume that building for this year's flagship models is the best course. It may be, but it effectively means your market is much smaller, especially for free, network effect apps.

These apps and their ecosystems rise and fall fast. Tablets & smartphones are spreading downmarket with devices being sold today @ 10% of the first androids.

A $50 phone won't run everything, but it will run some things - useful things.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#77

Post by doczoidberg »

enewcomer wrote: post #71
doczoidberg wrote: post #58

The key success of Whatsapp is IMHO that it uses your phone's address book as contact list. There is no hurdle to use it what is very important for the average user. The multi platform support from beginning is second thing. J2ME as stated in the article is negligible. I can't understand why this article is on top of HN.

The phone number as an id is a very important component to their adoption indeed. So do you posit that WhatsApp's adoption rates being what they are (compared to say Viber which does the same thing) is purely due to first mover?

yes that's my opinion.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#79

Post by keerthiko »

enewcomer wrote: post #73
keerthiko wrote: post #69

This. This is the answer I have always looked for. > "But, but, how is WhatsApp any different than iMessage / Facebook Messenger / Hangouts?" I have made this exclamation multiple times, and my friends in India and Singapore and other parts of Asia just turned up their palms with a "I dunno, everyone uses it and told me to get it." I refused to use it since I like to use as few messaging platforms as possible (just G…

You only need one friend you care about using a Blackberry or Nokia for it to matter though. The long tail matters when it comes to communication.

Ah. Blackberry. I forgot that is included in the J2ME target devices. That explains nearly everything, although any of my friends who had those blackberries have transitioned since, and now people are just (well played WhatsApp) locked into the service.

Re: Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

#80

Post by jrockway »

coenhyde wrote: post #9

The key take away from this article is not to build your app in J2ME but to recognize how big the world is outside of America. American focused startups face lots of competition in a relatively small market.

The US is a pretty big market. 320,000,000 people, most with at least some disposable income. There are also plenty of advertisers that want to market their products to Americans, which means you can choose between ad-sponsored or for-pay business models.
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