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Was the business sustainable? They tried some form of paid apps or recurring subscriptions several times, but no one I know actually paid for WhatsApp ever. I i
by paxy 8y ago
Was the business sustainable? They tried some form of paid apps or recurring subscriptions several times, but no one I know actually paid for WhatsApp ever. I imagine they were just burning through VC funds.
- fasj82 8y agoIt does not take much money to run a messenger, especially one that does not store conversations or files server-side once they are delivered.
- pdonis 8y agoDoesn't matter if revenue is less than costs.
- dman 8y agoI paid for it.
- denimnerd 8y agoyeah so did I and all my friends. $1 whatever.
- rmason 8y agoActually in one of their interviews after the acquisition Koum said that they still had every single penny of their VC money, they hadn't spent it. He even showed the bank statement showing it was all there before they took a second round of financing from Sequoia. Jim Goetz said they were the only startup we'd ever dealt with that was paying income tax before taking any money. https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/02/19/exclusive-inside-story-how-jan-koum-built-whatsapp-into-facebooks-new-19-billion-baby/#1af840b22fa1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2014/02/19/exclusive...
- tim333 8y agoI paid 79p for a lifetime subscription but yeah that probably wasn't going to cover costs. They used charges partly to limit uptake when the servers were struggling I think.