4 ms·

The clash of cultures... I prefer WhatsApp's one though.

by valeg 8y ago

mrlatinos 8y ago
Yup, peace and quiet with privacy in mind. Not sure what Facebook employees don't understand.
- hkmurakami 8y ago
  they're paid to not understand it.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  " Not sure what Facebook employees don't understand" It's the part where What's App doesn't actually make any money and as a standalone business isn't worth a whole lot. The issue boils down to business model. It's really easy for WhatsApp founders to take the moral high road when he doesn't have to bother with trying to make a dime. The WhatsApp founder is in somewhat of a hypocritical position given that his $17 Billion dollars comes from FB practices that he is ostensibly uncomfortable with.
  - mevile 8y ago
    Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp. He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars when he realized how fundamentally he disagreed with how facebook works. Prior to WhatsApp the founders had very little money.
    - sonnyblarney 8y ago
      "Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp." If you've worked in the mobile app business you might get that this could mean almost 0 in revenues. People. Don't. Pay. For. Stuff. Moreover, WhatsApp is huge in places like S. America where people don't have credit cards, or for whom $1 is even too much. "He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars" He took $17 Billion and is now publicly complaining that what FB is doing is immoral. He doesn't seem to have a problem taking money from that immoral business model.
      - ameister14 8y ago
        >If you've worked in the mobile app business you might get that this could mean almost 0 in revenues. It could, but it didn't. It meant revenues in the tens of millions.
        sonnyblarney 8y ago
        Yes, that's about right. Not much of a company, relative to the $17B he raked in because of their ad-value to FB.
        ameister14 8y ago
        Depends on how you define a company, I suppose. If it is profitable and has hundreds of millions of customers, that's a pretty significant company to me. As an alternative example, broadcast.com was sold for 5.7 billion. I'd take continued success, hundreds of millions of happy users and a good purpose over broadcast.com.
        SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
        I'd like to see how your company is doing if tens of millions of dollars of almost entirely clear profit is "not much of a company"...
  - astrange 8y ago
    WhatsApp was very profitable and efficiently run when they were acquired. I mean, they only had 35 employees for the world.
    - soziawa 8y ago
      They were far from being profitable. They made close to no money, nobody I know was charged more than the initial fee.
JustSomeNobody 8y ago
> Some Facebook employees mocked WhatsApp with chants of ‘Welcome to WhatsApp—Shut up!’ Pretty sure I would, too. Edit: This was ambiguous. I didn't mean I'd mock WhatsApp. I was agreeing with the orginal post that I'd prefer WhatsApp culture.
barbs 8y ago
Me too. I hate the culture that tech-companies seem to be gravitating towards in general - gimmicks like open-plan offices, frequent parties and outings, games etc. I didn't get into software development for the perks - I did it do solve problems with software, and these companies seem to be missing the point that software development requires extended periods of focus. I wish I could find out more about WhatsApp's culture in this respect. Something like Valve's new employee handbook[0] or Netflix's culture deck[1]. I can only really find second-hand articles referring to its culture [2] [0] https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployee... [1] https://www.slideshare.net/BarbaraGill3/netflix-culture-deck https://www.slideshare.net/BarbaraGill3/netflix-culture-deck [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/40459142/whatsapps-cofounder-on-how-it-reached-1-3-billion-users-without-losing-its-focus https://www.fastcompany.com/40459142/whatsapps-cofounder-on-...

The clash of cultures... I prefer WhatsApp's one though.

by valeg 8y ago

The clash of cultures... I prefer WhatsApp's one though.

mrlatinos 8y ago

Yup, peace and quiet with privacy in mind. Not sure what Facebook employees don't understand.

hkmurakami 8y ago
they're paid to not understand it.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
" Not sure what Facebook employees don't understand" It's the part where What's App doesn't actually make any money and as a standalone business isn't worth a whole lot. The issue boils down to business model. It's really easy for WhatsApp founders to take the moral high road when he doesn't have to bother with trying to make a dime. The WhatsApp founder is in somewhat of a hypocritical position given that his $17 Billion dollars comes from FB practices that he is ostensibly uncomfortable with.
- mevile 8y ago
  Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp. He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars when he realized how fundamentally he disagreed with how facebook works. Prior to WhatsApp the founders had very little money.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    "Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp." If you've worked in the mobile app business you might get that this could mean almost 0 in revenues. People. Don't. Pay. For. Stuff. Moreover, WhatsApp is huge in places like S. America where people don't have credit cards, or for whom $1 is even too much. "He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars" He took $17 Billion and is now publicly complaining that what FB is doing is immoral. He doesn't seem to have a problem taking money from that immoral business model.
    - ameister14 8y ago
      >If you've worked in the mobile app business you might get that this could mean almost 0 in revenues. It could, but it didn't. It meant revenues in the tens of millions.
      - sonnyblarney 8y ago
        Yes, that's about right. Not much of a company, relative to the $17B he raked in because of their ad-value to FB.
        ameister14 8y ago
        Depends on how you define a company, I suppose. If it is profitable and has hundreds of millions of customers, that's a pretty significant company to me. As an alternative example, broadcast.com was sold for 5.7 billion. I'd take continued success, hundreds of millions of happy users and a good purpose over broadcast.com.
        SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago
        I'd like to see how your company is doing if tens of millions of dollars of almost entirely clear profit is "not much of a company"...
- astrange 8y ago
  WhatsApp was very profitable and efficiently run when they were acquired. I mean, they only had 35 employees for the world.
  - soziawa 8y ago
    They were far from being profitable. They made close to no money, nobody I know was charged more than the initial fee.

JustSomeNobody 8y ago

> Some Facebook employees mocked WhatsApp with chants of ‘Welcome to WhatsApp—Shut up!’ Pretty sure I would, too. Edit: This was ambiguous. I didn't mean I'd mock WhatsApp. I was agreeing with the orginal post that I'd prefer WhatsApp culture.

barbs 8y ago

Me too. I hate the culture that tech-companies seem to be gravitating towards in general - gimmicks like open-plan offices, frequent parties and outings, games etc. I didn't get into software development for the perks - I did it do solve problems with software, and these companies seem to be missing the point that software development requires extended periods of focus. I wish I could find out more about WhatsApp's culture in this respect. Something like Valve's new employee handbook[0] or Netflix's culture deck[1]. I can only really find second-hand articles referring to its culture [2] [0] https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployee... [1] https://www.slideshare.net/BarbaraGill3/netflix-culture-deck https://www.slideshare.net/BarbaraGill3/netflix-culture-deck [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/40459142/whatsapps-cofounder-on-how-it-reached-1-3-billion-users-without-losing-its-focus https://www.fastcompany.com/40459142/whatsapps-cofounder-on-...