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That seems like the real takeaway here. This is in good contrast with WhatsApp, which was almost left alone, but not enough so, and got a couple of bad headline
by MildlySerious 10y ago
That seems like the real takeaway here. This is in good contrast with WhatsApp, which was almost left alone, but not enough so, and got a couple of bad headlines related since the acquisition.
- tsycho 10y agoUmm, WhatsApp might not be popular in the US but it's massively popular in India, Brazil and many other countries. IIRC they crossed 1B users a few months ago, and continue to grow. At acquisition, they were at 400M. If you look at how messaging has become the primary monetization platform in China, I would argue that WhatsApp is much more critical to Facebook's long term success globally than Instagram. And the MO seems the same from my outsider perspective - they were mostly left alone till very recently.
- MildlySerious 10y agoI'm not saying it wasn't a good call for FB to buy WhatsApp from a business perspective, but I am thinking that had they left it alone, as in, not screwed around with it, it would have kept growing just as well, maybe even more so than it now that a share of people stopped trusting it as much.
- reitanqild 10y agoI think it wasn't left alone at all. It was turned upside down. The old main feature: pay-a-reasonable-fee-to-chat-privately was taken behind the barn and shot dead. I and my friends have now moved almost every group I was a member of over to Telegram (there is one left). And yes I know Whatsapp might have stronger encryption but for us that doesn't matter.
- MildlySerious 10y agoTG is my messenger of choice as well and I am really more happy with it in every aspect, sans the encryption. I sincerely wish they would do something to get that up to current standards. I'd pay to use that, too.