81–87 of 87 posts
It's not just a numbers game.. I write this analysis a few day ago before the viber and this acquisition. http://www.hoista.net/post/76404923258/the-rise-of-trojan-ho...
So I understand the value of WhatsApp now that the network is absolutely enormous, but can anyone shed some light on how WhatsApp differentiated itself at first? It seems like it's just basic user-to-user messaging over data, with a list-like interface that looks like every messaging app on my phone. How did they convince people that this particular proprietary solution was the best? Did they somehow remove friction…
As a daily WhatsApp User myself, here are the reasons why I prefer it over other similar messenger services: 1. It's the facebook of messengers (now it's just facebook...). In most of Europe an Africa there's a 90% chance , that your friend with a smartphone has also WhatsAp installed. Even the older generation (40+) uses it frequently. In Africa, they even have a song about it [1]. 2. Cross-Platform: It's available…
Any idea why it's more reliable on spotty networks? I'm trying to think of what they could have done to make it better than any other app sending HTTP requests back and forth.
Tragedy of the commons. Anything free will be overused. FB is paying $X per user for an overused product. Once they try to monetize (ads, higher fees, user tracking), it will quickly become underused.
Just like how they killed the Instagram goose right?
My experience when I first used WhatsApp on a droid phone was... * Absolute piece of cake to get started/configured * Absolute piece of cake to message friends * No 22c charge from carrier per SMS Pretty good recipe for success.
Are you outside the US? I haven't paid 22 cents for a text message in YEARS.
Am I the only one that gets a nervous feeling about Sequoia boosting WhatsApp like this after Facebook's announcement of a 16B acquisition? I'd call it suspicion of a conflict of interest, but I don't think that description quite fits in this instance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is Whatsapp even remotely the same thing as Facebook? Were SMS ever considered to be a rival to Facebook?
It's not but it could be. All Whatsapp would have to do is expand the functionality of their app to include more social networking features.