6 ms·

It's interesting how ubiquitous whatsapp has become in India that it has become a verb. My parents and other older generation folks often say "whatsapp this to

It's interesting how ubiquitous whatsapp has become in India that it has become a verb. My parents and other older generation folks often say "whatsapp this to me".

otoburb 8y ago
WhatsApp seems to have similar widespread market adoption in Brasil[1] too. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-is-upending-the-role-of-unions-in-brazil-next-it-may-transform-politics/2018/06/09/777e537e-68cc-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-i...
- davchana 8y ago
  Orkut too was much popular in India & Brazil, looks like these both countries have similar users.
  - pkaye 8y ago
    From my limited experience, I know in India you can get a lot of SMS spam. I wonder if people migrated to whatsapp for that reason?
    - abhgh 8y ago
      I think one of the bigger reasons was something the article touches upon - image sharing. Internet connections can often be sketchy, and Whatsapps compressed image sharing often ran circles around its competitors. The other reason was the identity to phone number mapping and the ease of setting up communities with those identities. Yet another reason was you didn't need to separately pay for a mobile data package and a SMS package anymore - WhatsApp replaced SMSes and it fit frugally into the data plan. I know that in my circles these played a big role. Reason 1 was especially significant for my parents/older relatives since my conversations with them are not text heavy (maybe them getting used to a device to type in for casual communication is a factor) - we often share images, family photos - and WhatsApp killed it in this niche use-case.
    - maverick_iceman 8y ago
      Nope, mostly because it was (and is) free when carrier based SMS used to cost money.
    - simula67 8y ago
      I think the reasons are : 1. It's free ( if you already have Internet on your phone ) 2. It's very easy to use and fast 3. The multimedia experience is better than MMS 4. Group chats 5. Network effects ( Some companies provide customer service through WhatsApp, your friends may already hang out in certain WhatsApp groups etc ) Unfortunately many people have to mute WhatsApp messages because they may be in a family group, getting too many messages and it may be considered rude to leave
  - yen223 8y ago
    Nah, it's just that WhatsApp is massively popular worldwide, except for China and the US.

It's interesting how ubiquitous whatsapp has become in India that it has become a verb. My parents and other older generation folks often say "whatsapp this to me".

otoburb 8y ago

WhatsApp seems to have similar widespread market adoption in Brasil[1] too. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-is-upending-the-role-of-unions-in-brazil-next-it-may-transform-politics/2018/06/09/777e537e-68cc-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/whatsapp-i...

davchana 8y ago
Orkut too was much popular in India & Brazil, looks like these both countries have similar users.
- pkaye 8y ago
  From my limited experience, I know in India you can get a lot of SMS spam. I wonder if people migrated to whatsapp for that reason?
  - abhgh 8y ago
    I think one of the bigger reasons was something the article touches upon - image sharing. Internet connections can often be sketchy, and Whatsapps compressed image sharing often ran circles around its competitors. The other reason was the identity to phone number mapping and the ease of setting up communities with those identities. Yet another reason was you didn't need to separately pay for a mobile data package and a SMS package anymore - WhatsApp replaced SMSes and it fit frugally into the data plan. I know that in my circles these played a big role. Reason 1 was especially significant for my parents/older relatives since my conversations with them are not text heavy (maybe them getting used to a device to type in for casual communication is a factor) - we often share images, family photos - and WhatsApp killed it in this niche use-case.
  - maverick_iceman 8y ago
    Nope, mostly because it was (and is) free when carrier based SMS used to cost money.
  - simula67 8y ago
    I think the reasons are : 1. It's free ( if you already have Internet on your phone ) 2. It's very easy to use and fast 3. The multimedia experience is better than MMS 4. Group chats 5. Network effects ( Some companies provide customer service through WhatsApp, your friends may already hang out in certain WhatsApp groups etc ) Unfortunately many people have to mute WhatsApp messages because they may be in a family group, getting too many messages and it may be considered rude to leave
- yen223 8y ago
  Nah, it's just that WhatsApp is massively popular worldwide, except for China and the US.