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Great theory. Except that outside the US people who are FB friends tell each other "I want to chat, give me your number so I can add you on WhatsApp". Outside t

by nroets 10y ago

Great theory. Except that outside the US people who are FB friends tell each other "I want to chat, give me your number so I can add you on WhatsApp". Outside the US, WhatsApp is winning because of network effects.

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
> Outside the US, WhatsApp is winning because of network effects. In which country? Because I have tons of messengers installed and so do most people I know outside the US.
- mslot 10y ago
  Literally most countries in the world: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/160897/20160525/top-messaging-apps-for-android-whatsapp-most-popular-in-109-countries-bbm-now-dominant-just-in-indonesia.htm http://www.techtimes.com/articles/160897/20160525/top-messag... Sure, I have messenger and hangouts and telegram as well, but WhatsApp is like a primary mode of communication.
- daptaq 10y ago
  I know that WhatsApp is immensely popular in Germany. Most of my friends (me too) don't even have Facebook, and those who do, don't even use it regularly. WhatsApp on the other hand, is more trusted than Email - When some friend sends me an email, he asks me via WhatsApp if I revived it. Group Chats, especially with younger folks, are numerous and used for anything, even though the technology is obviously lacking, when compared to other platforms. But most people either don't care, or perceive these benefits as less important compared to the network effect that WhatsApp has - "I don't want to switch between [random messaging app] and WhatsApp, why don't you just accept what everyone uses". It's practically the same as with Facebook in the US, and just as bad.
  - vidanay 10y ago
    Sample size of one for me.... I was in Germany two weeks ago and I tried to get my colleagues on chat...any chat...when I mentioned WhatsApp, they all looked at me like I had a unicorn horn growing out of my forehead. So far I have been unsuccessful in getting any of my team on a chat platform on a regular basis. My company supposedly endorses Lync 2010 (yeah, I know), but probably less than 10% of my coworkers use it and the entire division in Germany doesn't even have it installed on their PC's. Our Lync is also broken by the fact that corporate IT doesn't allow it on mobile platforms.
    - tdkl 10y ago
      That's funny, because all people I know that use Whatsapp have moved to Germany. But this mostly shows that the popularity debate is moot - you tend to know/use what your circle of friends does disregarding of statistics of this article posted.
mslot 10y ago
WhatsApp came to Europe at a time when there was a strong need to replace badly overpriced SMS. In the US most telco's offered subscriptions with free, unlimited SMS and WhatsApp didn't provide any immediate benefit. Facebook Messenger came later, but had the ability to send messages without contact information, giving people in the US a reason to adopt it. By now, most people in Europe also have Messenger, but still mainly use WhatsApp (slightly generalising). I think that primarily comes down to WhatsApp being a much better messenging app. It's quick, reliable, easy to use, power-efficient, small, well-integrated into the OS, secure, and most importantly: media sharing just works.
- wodenokoto 10y ago
  I think this theory is quite solid. For some reason denmark has always (or at least for a very long time) had unlimited sms/mms in most subscriptions. We also have a low WhatsApp adoption rate. Lately fb-messenger is winning territority (and so is snapchat, but for other reasons), since it offers good group chat on top of a service that already covers north of 80% of the entire population.
  - patrickk 10y ago
    In Germany, the mobile plans are extremely stingy with minutes, SMS and data for some reason. I personally use Telegram (trying to convert friends to it), WhatsApp (everyone is on it), FB Messenger (everyone is there), iMessage occasionally, Skype for Voip, and I've stopped using Viber as no one seems to use it anymore (it was extremely popular about 2-3 years ago though).
wcummings 10y ago
I love WhatsApp, but I can't imagine handing out my phone # the way I hand out my email or irc nickname.

by nroets 10y ago

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago

> Outside the US, WhatsApp is winning because of network effects. In which country? Because I have tons of messengers installed and so do most people I know outside the US.

mslot 10y ago
Literally most countries in the world: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/160897/20160525/top-messaging-apps-for-android-whatsapp-most-popular-in-109-countries-bbm-now-dominant-just-in-indonesia.htm http://www.techtimes.com/articles/160897/20160525/top-messag... Sure, I have messenger and hangouts and telegram as well, but WhatsApp is like a primary mode of communication.
daptaq 10y ago
I know that WhatsApp is immensely popular in Germany. Most of my friends (me too) don't even have Facebook, and those who do, don't even use it regularly. WhatsApp on the other hand, is more trusted than Email - When some friend sends me an email, he asks me via WhatsApp if I revived it. Group Chats, especially with younger folks, are numerous and used for anything, even though the technology is obviously lacking, when compared to other platforms. But most people either don't care, or perceive these benefits as less important compared to the network effect that WhatsApp has - "I don't want to switch between [random messaging app] and WhatsApp, why don't you just accept what everyone uses". It's practically the same as with Facebook in the US, and just as bad.
- vidanay 10y ago
  Sample size of one for me.... I was in Germany two weeks ago and I tried to get my colleagues on chat...any chat...when I mentioned WhatsApp, they all looked at me like I had a unicorn horn growing out of my forehead. So far I have been unsuccessful in getting any of my team on a chat platform on a regular basis. My company supposedly endorses Lync 2010 (yeah, I know), but probably less than 10% of my coworkers use it and the entire division in Germany doesn't even have it installed on their PC's. Our Lync is also broken by the fact that corporate IT doesn't allow it on mobile platforms.
  - tdkl 10y ago
    That's funny, because all people I know that use Whatsapp have moved to Germany. But this mostly shows that the popularity debate is moot - you tend to know/use what your circle of friends does disregarding of statistics of this article posted.

mslot 10y ago

WhatsApp came to Europe at a time when there was a strong need to replace badly overpriced SMS. In the US most telco's offered subscriptions with free, unlimited SMS and WhatsApp didn't provide any immediate benefit. Facebook Messenger came later, but had the ability to send messages without contact information, giving people in the US a reason to adopt it. By now, most people in Europe also have Messenger, but still mainly use WhatsApp (slightly generalising). I think that primarily comes down to WhatsApp being a much better messenging app. It's quick, reliable, easy to use, power-efficient, small, well-integrated into the OS, secure, and most importantly: media sharing just works.

wodenokoto 10y ago
I think this theory is quite solid. For some reason denmark has always (or at least for a very long time) had unlimited sms/mms in most subscriptions. We also have a low WhatsApp adoption rate. Lately fb-messenger is winning territority (and so is snapchat, but for other reasons), since it offers good group chat on top of a service that already covers north of 80% of the entire population.
- patrickk 10y ago
  In Germany, the mobile plans are extremely stingy with minutes, SMS and data for some reason. I personally use Telegram (trying to convert friends to it), WhatsApp (everyone is on it), FB Messenger (everyone is there), iMessage occasionally, Skype for Voip, and I've stopped using Viber as no one seems to use it anymore (it was extremely popular about 2-3 years ago though).

wcummings 10y ago

I love WhatsApp, but I can't imagine handing out my phone # the way I hand out my email or irc nickname.