Bloomberg Tech Reporter: Facebook to buy WhatsApp

Status
Not open for further replies.
Santiako said:
I literally don't know anyone with a smartphone that does not use Whatsapp.
Click to expand...

Looks like you're in England which makes sense. It's basically a monster outside the US and fairly small within it seemingly (most people just use the built-in group chat with iPhones). I know the Footy-GAF thread has a WhatsApp conversation or whatever you call it. I don't use the app so I'm not a part of it.

Is SnapChat big outside the US?
 
Never saw the appeal, imessage does the same thing but seamlessly integrates it with SMS.

But I know the people with cheap phones used it.

Apple should have opened up imessage I guess.
 
Krelian said:
If you install the app you can immediately see who does and doesn't use it.
Click to expand...

No you can't. You can see who may have created an account two years ago, but you can't tell if they are actively using it. I've sent people messages only to find out they no longer used Whatsapp and had no idea they never got the message. That pretty much was a huge first strike against using it to me when I tried it out.
 
Lkr said:
does it cost money to send SMS to other European countries? If so, I could understand the popularity. SMS is pretty much included on every US plan at this point making the app useless
Click to expand...

it does cost money sending sms to other countries afaik, most smartphone users get unlimited or a huge number of sms free but nobody uses them. whatsapp is incredibly popular due to group chats or sending multimedia files.

Marty Chinn said:
No you can't. You can see who may have created an account two years ago, but you can't tell if they are actively using it. I've sent people messages only to find out they no longer used Whatsapp and had no idea they never got the message. That pretty much was a huge first strike against using it to me when I tried it out.
Click to expand...

you can see when they when they were online.
 
D.Lo said:
Never saw the appeal, imessage does the same thing but seamlessly integrates it with SMS.

But I know the people with cheap phones used it.

Apple should have opened up imessage I guess.
Click to expand...

These programs are god-send for international calling.

Tobe said:
ok so what are the alternatives to whatsapp?
Click to expand...

LINE

Personally, I think it got more and better features than whatsapp.
 
Meier said:
Looks like you're in England which makes sense. It's basically a monster outside the US and fairly small within it seemingly (most people just use the built-in group chat with iPhones). I know the Footy-GAF thread has a WhatsApp conversation or whatever you call it. I don't use the app so I'm not a part of it.

Is SnapChat big outside the US?
Click to expand...
Yeah, everyone I know is either in England or Spain, it's massive here. I also don't know anyone that uses Snapchap. Whatsapp just became the default for everyone, if you don't use it you get left out, so everyone uses it.
 
Krelian said:
Weird how it seems basically unknown in the US. Are you guys really just texting/using iMessage? The former is too basic, has no groups, no file transfers, not to mention that it often costs extra (here in Europe at least) and the latter is iPhone only. What about Android folks, or Windows Phone?

If you install the app you can immediately see who does and doesn't use it.
Click to expand...

I think it's the fact that we never needed anything more from our sms plans (or perhaps complacent with what we have) so we never needed to seek something else to supplement (or replace) it.

Why did it become popular in European countries? Because I assume that your texting plans are even cheaper than ours, but somehow 3rd party replacements have taken over.
 
The way tech companies get valued is always so bizarre. So it has a lot of users, but how much money does it make? The app doesn't have any ads and it's free to download.
 
maquiladora said:
And in a couple of years WhatsApp will be the Myspace of messaging and we'll all be laughing at this.
Click to expand...

just like Facebook? Myspace was always a flawed concept and never as popular as either FB or WhatsAPP. FB / Whatsapp evolved naturally to become the defacto world wide standard for social networking / messaging. Without any major screw up they'll stick around for a long time.
 
No more those kind of pics from broads.

Damn.

RIP Whatsupp, best pic messaging app in the history. I would love to see their pics servers, amount of amateur nudity must be incomprehensible.

Edit: 70% of my phonebook uses it, I use it almost exclusively for everyday messaging, and group messaging is also a beast. Eurogaf here.
 
Andrex said:
The Android app for Hangouts is WAY nicer and polished than WhatsApp.
Click to expand...

WhatsApp is pretty much on every platform you can think of. Like Symbian and dumbphones and stuff.

That's where a lot of its success comes from, besides being free and ultra simple to use.
 
D.Lo said:
Never saw the appeal, imessage does the same thing but seamlessly integrates it with SMS.

But I know the people with cheap phones used it.

Apple should have opened up imessage I guess.
Click to expand...

It doesn't even do this. The only service to seamlessly integrate SMS with it's own chat protocol is iMessage. To me, that's the holy grail of integration but iMessage is limited to iOS and OSX which is a huge limitation. I'm praying that some day Google will finally deliver an integrated chat between SMS and its own protocol that is cross platform.
 
Diprosalic said:
it does cost money sending sms to other countries afaik, most smartphone users get unlimited or a huge number of sms free but nobody uses them. whatsapp is incredibly popular due to group chats or sending multimedia files.
Click to expand...

maybe because iPhone is so popular in the US people don't see the need with iMessage and group MMS
Just isn't for me, I have no use I guess. maybe i'm just a dinosaur
 
spons said:
Holy shit. _Everybody_ I know uses it. Including myself. I guess Facebook finally gets my phone number though, heh.

I can't imagine anyone in Europe with a smartphone not having heard about it. Seems to be different over in the States? Why? It's free for a long time.
Click to expand...

Is not popular in the USA because we get unlimited texting and MMS. KIT KAT already has group messaging which I think every new announced Android phone will be required to have after June of this year. I don't see the point of whatsapp or LINE here in the US. :-)
 
It's the ease of use people. No need to create usernames or remember passwords, your phone number is your ID. And it lets you know which of your phone contacts has the app and can send/receive messages.

Amazed beyond belief some here hadn't even heard of it. To those, which non-SMS alternative do you use to text to your contacts?
 
Marty Chinn said:
It doesn't even do this. The only service to seamlessly integrate SMS with it's own chat protocol is iMessage. To me, that's the holy grail of integration but iMessage is limited to iOS and OSX which is a huge limitation. I'm praying that some day Google will finally deliver an integrated chat between SMS and its own protocol that is cross platform.
Click to expand...

well, now is their chance if they have anything in the works
 
"I’m excited to announce that we’ve agreed to acquire WhatsApp and that their entire team will be joining us at Facebook.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want. WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day.

WhatsApp is a simple, fast and reliable mobile messaging service that is used by over 450 million people on every major mobile platform. More than 1 million people sign up for WhatsApp every day and it is on its way to connecting one billion people. More and more people rely on WhatsApp to communicate with all of their contacts every day.

WhatsApp will continue to operate independently within Facebook. The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View. Over the next few years, we're going to work hard to help WhatsApp grow and connect the whole world. We also expect that WhatsApp will add to our efforts forInternet.org, our partnership to make basic internet services affordable for everyone.

WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community. Facebook Messenger is widely used for chatting with your Facebook friends, and WhatsApp for communicating with all of your contacts and small groups of people. Since WhatsApp and Messenger serve such different and important uses, we will continue investing in both and making them each great products for everyone.

WhatsApp had every option in the world, so I’m thrilled that they chose to work with us. I’m looking forward to what Facebook and WhatsApp can do together, and to developing great new mobile services that give people even more options for connecting.

I've also known Jan for a long time, and I know that we both share the vision of making the world more open and connected. I'm particularly happy that Jan has agreed to join the Facebook board and partner with me to shape Facebook's future as well as WhatsApp's.

Jan and the WhatsApp team have done some amazing work to connect almost half a billion people. I can’t wait for them to join Facebook and help us connect the rest of the world."
Click to expand...

https://www.facebook.com/zuck
 
Operations said:
It's the ease of use people. No need to create usernames or remember passwords, your phone number is your ID. And it lets you know which of your phone contacts has the app and can send/receive messages.

Amazed beyond belief some here hadn't even heard of it. To those, which non-SMS alternative do you use to text to your contacts?
Click to expand...

Great for group chats
 
Whatsapp must be my least used IM app. I installed it in 2010 and I don't think I've been messaged through it more than once. It's still there too.

But I guess it must be popular for the countries that don't use Facebook Messenger, Line or KakaoTalk......

(Canada, btw... and all my friends are here, Japan or Korea... None of which are whatsapp markets)
 
Meier said:
I actually have to pay $10 a month for 1,000 texts a month (even though I use about 50 of them). I should find out if they have a free version.. AT&T are assholes.
Click to expand...

get on board with the FSU sprint discount(although if you are in Tally I understand why you don't have sprint)
 
kIdMuScLe said:
Is not popular in the USA because we get unlimited texting. :-)
Click to expand...

These programs do free international calling, free international text messaging, free international file(photo/video) exchanges, free international group conference, free group chat, fully fledged out contact management, etc... and they do it cross-platform and cross-carrier.
 
kIdMuScLe said:
Is not popular in the USA because we get unlimited texting. :-)
Click to expand...

That's a good deal. In terms of texting, plans in the Netherlands are a disaster. We're miles behind in mobile developments anyway. It's just so damn expensive here.

Meier said:
Is SnapChat big outside the US?
Click to expand...
What's a SnapChat? Seriously though, I've come across the name but I have absolutely no idea what it's about or how it makes my life easier or better. Or cheaper, in WhatsApp's case.
 
Atrophis said:
The way tech companies get valued is always so bizarre. So it has a lot of users, but how much money does it make? The app doesn't have any ads and it's free to download.
Click to expand...

Seriously. It's just users x $$ = value. No business sense at all.

$16,000,000,000/400,000,000 users = $40 a user. Just nuts.
 
Junior Mint said:
Whatsapp is probably the most popular messaging app here in Canada (Vancouver).
Click to expand...

????????

I'm in Vancouver and never ever ever used it, or know anyone who does.

FB messenger is the default from what I've seen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

China's Efficient AI Model DeepSeek Sends U.S. Tech Stocks Plummeting
2 3
102
8K
Heimdall_Xtreme replied
Meta wants to flood Instagram and Facebook with AI bots | Anyone will soon be able to generate accounts, complete with bio and profile picture.
43
2K
Days like these... replied
Facebook DOWN
2
53
3K
GHG replied
Tech Repair
7
966
Mistake replied
Extremely Normal and Well Adapted Adults Go to COSTCO to Buy Pokemon Cards (for their kids, of course)
2
93
5K
GateofD replied
Top Bottom