If you mean the specific value of $19 billion, I agree that they ended up overpaying as a result of the bidding war. By "undervalued", I'm talking about people who are shocked that this company's value is to the order of billions, which I think is reasonable for a user base of that scale in the hands of a company like Facebook.
So wait. Facebook paid $19 Billion for Whatsapp? 19 BILLION?!
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If you mean the specific value of $19 billion, I agree that they ended up overpaying as a result of the bidding war. By "undervalued", I'm talking about people who are shocked that this company's value is to the order of billions, which I think is reasonable for a user base of that scale in the hands of a company like Facebook.
Lol. I see where you're coming from, a service is nothing without users and in the US, there are none.
But christ, you have no idea.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Lol. I see where you're coming from, a service is nothing without users and in the US, there are none.
But christ, you have no idea.
I probably do since I have all the IM apps on my phone. Whatsapp doesn't seem very different.
Does it even have stickers? This is how boys and girls banter these days in America, Japan, Korea.
Because that money ends up sunk and can't be used to create more money. All you do is enable more people to possibly make a living and compete. Real shitty I know...
I'm sure it would be a logistical nightmare, it's the sort of project you split up, and take case by case.
GodParticle
Member
I'm beginning to think I'm the only one who has zero interest in being tied to a phone all day. I think I look at mine maybe twice a day
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Hahaha.. WhatsApp has a quote from Tyler Durden on the front page of their website.
You don't need to be "friends" with anyone to use Whatsapp. Like SMS, anyone that knows your number can send you a message, so it can be used in some contexts other IMs cannot.
Lol. I see where you're coming from, a service is nothing without users and in the US, there are none.
But christ, you have no idea.
In terms of features, WeChat probably has WhatsApp beat. These types of services are not really a big deal in terms of features and they are easy to emulate. WeChat also uses the phone number as account deal, and had voice messaging before WhatsApp. It also is more cross-platform, since you can also use your phone number account on iPads and computers. And they've suddenly become a major banking and online purchasing platform. Yes, it also sells stickers that are the craze with Asian IM clients.
http://www.economist.com/news/china/21594312-can-wechat-become-world-beating-app-nice-little-earner
This is an easy to emulate feature. iMessage, WeChat, and Laiwang all do this.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
What's app is the default text and voice app in many parts if the world. Its not totally crazy.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Now that I think about it... Line and Kakao suggests contacts with numbers you have in your phone contact list. No one needs to add anyone as a "friend" to send messages to one another. I guess WhatsApp is not unique.
Yep, one of Whatsapp biggest weaknesses is that it's only available on mobile. When I'm on a computer I need to keep switching to my phone to keep a conversation going on. The demand is big enough that a nasty malware spread quite quickly by pretending to be a PC version of Whatsapp a while ago.
Facebook might as well used the money to develop their own phone-based account system.
Indeed, the idea is quite simple and easy to replicate. Whatsapp wasn't even the first one to do it: iMessage did basically the same years earlier, but it's only for Apple devices, which hamstrings it severely since Apple devices are never mass market.
Bullshit is so easy to spread. Just write something random on a picture and there will be a lot of people who believe it.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
There are PC versions of Line and Kakao that are quite useful (and FB too but I like to keep that in the browser otherwise it'd be buzzing too often
)Yeah. I have an iPhone and I never saw iMessage as a valid IM system. It's more like "use data instead of SMS whenever the other person is on iOS".
Yeah, many services have started using this feature. This feature actually becomes a weakness since it can make it less sticky. Switching from MSN to AIM was a problem because you would need to find out all your friend's usernames.
You can just send a WhatsApp message to your friend and tell them to download WeChat (because I can message you from my PC! or because I can send stickers! or whatever new IM client innovation comes out--for Laiwang, it was because they were giving out money to new users!), and he will automatically be in your contact list once again since it is once again populated by phone number.
It's not to say that Whatsapp doesn't have value, it certainly does. But $19 billion doesn't make sense, sorry.
Plus there are other applications that do the exact same thing. Those also don't cost any money.
I am... and I am not planing on becoming one. Sry mark, but you wasted a few hundred bucks on me and all of my friends. We already switched.
I won't hand you over my daily life that easily.
incoming oO? how is that even justifiable?
edit: just forgot: thanks corporate America for ruining my week! ...again
speculawyer
Member
Yeah, it is silly. We are definitely in another bubble.
cuevas. PhD.
Member
Someone didn't want to pay a dollar for the app so we switched to BBM.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
But do those other apps have half a billion people using them, over 70% of which use it everyday?
The company or tech may not be worth it, but its reach is almost unmatched. But yeah, 19 billion is pretty crazy. According to the verge podcast, Google was after them as well and likely resulted in the inflated price.
RustyNails
Member
This has to be the most bullshit acquisition in history.
Black-Wind
Member
Ehh, things change. If people start seeing BS from FB now owning the app like ads or seeing that the app now cost them in some way then IDK what's really stopping them from just going to LINE or something.
I actually prefer LINE as you can use stickers ... pretty much everyone I know with Whatsapp has those other free IM apps installed to. I only use Whatsapp more now because the main friend I IM somehow couldn't reinstall LINE. :/
Seems like they're fighting a losing battle against disruption ... they wanna own something that's pretty much just the best example of "Phase one" of the new big thing. But then again IDK what they plan on doing with it ... so ehh :/
As a side note, anytime I randomly start talking to a person I met online they seem to want to use Kik and only have Kik ...
jediyoshi
Member
Is this because the Comcast Time Warner deal technically hasn't gone through yet?
What if Facebook developed their own software similar to these already existing applications and promoted it? That wouldn't have costed anywhere near $19 billion, wouldn't you think? I mean Facebook has over a billion people using their software, so I can't imagine it being that tough to get to those users .
ProfessorLobo
Banned
I sincerely doubt that's at all accurate.
Monocle
Member
A small but important part of me just died.It's more than NASA's budget.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
They have existing software that does this. It's not even that popular for FB users to use the separate messaging app.
The whole point is the buy the users of WhatsApp. The app itself could be whipped up in a few days. You can't just clone WhatsApp and then expect to ever be as popular as WhatsApp unless you sent it back in time 4 years.
Given that I never used WhatsApp, I was just writing a question about this.
Isn't a system like this easily exploitable by companies who want to send commercial informations?
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Eh. Starting from scratch is always an uphill battle for getting new users. In the meantime, WA would have kept going. Also, Facebook has a shit ton of users, but WA kicks its ass in actual users using it everyday because of how central the program is to users cellphone habits. Facebook isn't buying it just because its successful now, but they see it to continue exploding. Who knows. Text messaging etc is a huge business and they want to own how people are communicating.
freeofgreed
Member
Never even heard of this app til I read this thread, and it's being sold for $19 billion? Jesus Christ.
You're totally missing the point. Facebook is slowly becoming uncool, especially among teens. Anything that is a direct spin off of facebook is not really gonna take off. It's why they bought instgram and now acquired whatsapp. Why compete with what may be the next big thing if the odds are not in your favor? Just buy it, that way the user base has less options and you still get to add those users to your network even if they overlap.
SolidusDave
Member
In my experience you get one check mark for successfully sending the message (to the server) and a second check mark once the phone of the other person received it.
Not when the other person actually reads it. It does however show you the last time the person has been opening the app (for any message with any contact though). (I cheat sometimes and read the new messages in the status bar w/o opening the app
)What are they hoping to do with this? I can only see it one of two ways
1) Monetize the way people use WhatsApp today / sell off our data
2) Integrate Facebook to WhatsApp in a way that will promote people to use Facebook more.
Either way, it doesn't bode well for WhatsApp. How else could Facebook have use for this? The service itself generates no revenue other than sales.
The second check is when it's been read. It's been a bit buggy when it transition into iOS 7 I think it was, but I think it works reliably now.
1) Monetize the way people use WhatsApp today / sell off our data
2) Integrate Facebook to WhatsApp in a way that will promote people to use Facebook more.
Either way, it doesn't bode well for WhatsApp. How else could Facebook have use for this? The service itself generates no revenue other than sales.
In my experience you get one check mark for successfully sending the message (to the server) and a second check mark once the phone of the other person received it.
Not when the other person actually reads it. It does however show you the last time the person has been opening the app (for any message with any contact though). (I cheat sometimes and read the new messages in the status bar w/o opening the app
The second check is when it's been read. It's been a bit buggy when it transition into iOS 7 I think it was, but I think it works reliably now.
SolidusDave
Member
Maybe it's different on android? I get the two ticks almost instantly after sending a message w/o the other person being online/awake etc., only requires the phone to be on&connected.
Shining Sunshine
Banned
When I switched to a new phone, all my contacts screwed up. I had contacts I had never seen before, and the contacts I wanted weren't appearing. Spent a couple hours trying to make it work with the only solution is to not use it.
So... most of the time it works.
And it's rising i can tell same thing happend in the netherlands with the social network called Hyves it was taken over by another company and everyone left to instagram,twitter and facebook. This is what happens when zuckerberg got afraid of whatsapp and now bought it for a idiotic price. I deleted whatsapp because well i do have facebook but i want to keep things seperate from each other and people will find a alternative.
Dion Blaster
Member
In other countries is SMS more expensive than data? I would rather not waste data doing things I could just text. I'm trying to figure out why I would want this. I'll download it today to test it out.
I had that today, wanted to message an old friend, but the profile pic was a old woman with her man. I believe he has changed his phone number haha.
There are PC versions of Line and Kakao that are quite useful (and FB too but I like to keep that in the browser otherwise it'd be buzzing too often
Yeah. I have an iPhone and I never saw iMessage as a valid IM system. It's more like "use data instead of SMS whenever the other person is on iOS".
I'm both an iMessage and Whatsapp user.
In praise of iMessage, it's built into the default SMS app, all pictures and videos are sent at FULL resolution and quality. You can group chat effectively. Delivery and Read status. Typing status (except in Groups). Continue your conversations on any of your iOS devices or Mac computers. But yes, it is iOS ONLY.
That's the major draw of Whatsapp. The fact that it's multi platform/OS.
It's amazing to me how much Telegram has grown since Whatsapp was bought. Seems every day they tweet that another several million have joined on that day (nearly 5 million today). When Whatsapp got bought, no one i knew used Telegram (including me) but now 15 people have it.
I had no idea people knew (or cared) about this stuff so much.
I had no idea people knew (or cared) about this stuff so much.
And would not reach anyone. WhatsApp captured the market before there was.. well, WhatsApp. And more importantly, before Android and iOS had their own equivalent versions.
If you made another WhatsApp, you wouldn't change, because everyone's using WhatsApp.
MrGreencastle
Member
I have one contact on Whatsapp. She lives in London. Other than that I have no use for this. Asked my younger, more app-savvy brother, he's never even heard of it. Craziness. That's a lot of money.
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