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WhatsApp is 'just SMS' but it was bought for 20+ billion. Twitter has a multitude of opportunities to monetize their user base. Their management has just done

by akuma73 10y ago

WhatsApp is 'just SMS' but it was bought for 20+ billion. Twitter has a multitude of opportunities to monetize their user base. Their management has just done a poor job.

khazhou 10y ago
WhatsApp may have a healthy revenue stream, but I'll just point out that being acquired for huge $$$$ does not in itself make it a good business.
intrasight 10y ago
WhatsApp has lots of users and makes no money. Sounds a lot like Twitter to me.
niftich 10y ago
WhatsApp was bought because it was popular in India and Brazil, markets that have historically been weaker for Facebook Messenger. Together, they ensured that Facebook would get a nigh-insurmountable lead in marketshare over Google in the messaging space [1]. Twitter in neither a threat to anyone, nor a strong candidate for a defensive purchase [2][3][4]. The two companies are hardly comparable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11914620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11914620 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420732 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12083975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12083975
anigbrowl 10y ago
Yeah but people don't like being monetized. If someone has to pay to get a tweet in front of you then it's probably because nobody would bother to spread that information for free, so chances are any sponsored tweet has low value to the viewer. Conversely if you can have huge reach by paying then the (slim) value of social proof becomes meaningless because you're not really popular, you just bought the digital equivalent of a billboard in an attempt to seem popular. Adding too much money lowers the overall value proposition.
nunez 10y ago
Being bought doesn't mean it had the ability to turn a profit. I don't think WhatsApp would have been able to do this on its own at the donation-ware level prices they were asking for ($0.99/year).

by akuma73 10y ago

WhatsApp is 'just SMS' but it was bought for 20+ billion. Twitter has a multitude of opportunities to monetize their user base. Their management has just done a poor job.

khazhou 10y ago

WhatsApp may have a healthy revenue stream, but I'll just point out that being acquired for huge $$$$ does not in itself make it a good business.

intrasight 10y ago

WhatsApp has lots of users and makes no money. Sounds a lot like Twitter to me.

niftich 10y ago

WhatsApp was bought because it was popular in India and Brazil, markets that have historically been weaker for Facebook Messenger. Together, they ensured that Facebook would get a nigh-insurmountable lead in marketshare over Google in the messaging space [1]. Twitter in neither a threat to anyone, nor a strong candidate for a defensive purchase [2][3][4]. The two companies are hardly comparable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13465483 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11914620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11914620 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12420732 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12083975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12083975

anigbrowl 10y ago

Yeah but people don't like being monetized. If someone has to pay to get a tweet in front of you then it's probably because nobody would bother to spread that information for free, so chances are any sponsored tweet has low value to the viewer. Conversely if you can have huge reach by paying then the (slim) value of social proof becomes meaningless because you're not really popular, you just bought the digital equivalent of a billboard in an attempt to seem popular. Adding too much money lowers the overall value proposition.

nunez 10y ago

Being bought doesn't mean it had the ability to turn a profit. I don't think WhatsApp would have been able to do this on its own at the donation-ware level prices they were asking for ($0.99/year).