4 ms·

This is very exciting for the 8 people still using SMS I suppose.

by iamaelephant 7y ago

berns 7y ago
That's an exaggeration, there are still 8 countries not using Whatsapp or WeChat.
grzte 7y ago
Counterpoint here: all the SMS messages I receive are just 2fa messages. Everybody is on whatsapp
JohnFen 7y ago
Literally everyone I know uses SMS. Some of those people also use other messaging apps, but they use SMS as well.
qntty 7y ago
I must have missed the memo
mrweasel 7y ago
That's very depend on country, and user segment. You'll read stories like "You must have Whatsapp to communicate in Europe", but in countries like Denmark, it's just SMS (unless you're on an iPhone that will automatically use iMessage). For my circles of friends and family it's either SMS or iMessage and iMessage is only because most people don't realise that it's not SMS. I am a little confused as to why they don't simple sneak RCS in, like Apple have done with iMessage. Just upgrade the users to RCS if available and fallback to SMS if not.
etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
I'm a 20 something in tech circles in the West Coast of the US and I use SMS at least some of the time to communicate with: * Brother * Mother * Father * Uncle 1 * Uncle 2 * Roommate 1 * Roommate 2 * Friend of roommate * Cousin * Business partner All of that is in just the last week. SMS is the first messaging system softened mentioned when meeting new people. Because it's a lowest common demoninator. Why am I not cool enough to hang out with Whatsapp-using people? Joking....
- maratc 7y ago
  The reason you don't use WhatsApp is that the people you communicate with don't use WhatsApp. The reason they don't use WhatsApp is that the people they communicate with (this includes you) don't use WhatsApp. This is called "network effect", where the value of the product for you is amplified as more and more other people use the same product. You can get a value out of a microwave oven, even if no other people ever use it; you can't get a value out of WhatsApp if other people don't use it, since there's not much value in WhatsApp-ing yourself. The question, then, becomes: Why the US doesn't get value out of WhatsApp?, and this has to do with history. As people started to use messaging (only SMS existed at that point) instead of calling, the US carriers responded by increasing the basic subscription price while including unlimited messaging (SMS). The relatively rich US population could bear this added cost. This, however, was not the situation in pretty much the rest of the world, where the SMS was either an expensive "added value service" (not good for the customer), or "unlimited within provider" (again, not good for the customer who has to guess whether their SMS is going to be free or not). As of 2010, when WhatsApp started gaining popularity, its value in the US was questionable, since no-additional-price unlimited SMS was a viable alternative (as it still is). The rest of the world have seen a tremendous value in unlimited and free alternative to the expensive SMS. (WhatsApp pricing was $0 for unlimited messaging in the first year, and $1 per year after that.) With that value, the rest of the world switched swiftly. Not all of them went to WhatsApp, as Viber seems to be the most popular in Eastern Europe and LINE in Japan.

This is very exciting for the 8 people still using SMS I suppose.

berns 7y ago

That's an exaggeration, there are still 8 countries not using Whatsapp or WeChat.

grzte 7y ago

Counterpoint here: all the SMS messages I receive are just 2fa messages. Everybody is on whatsapp

JohnFen 7y ago

Literally everyone I know uses SMS. Some of those people also use other messaging apps, but they use SMS as well.

qntty 7y ago

I must have missed the memo

mrweasel 7y ago

That's very depend on country, and user segment. You'll read stories like "You must have Whatsapp to communicate in Europe", but in countries like Denmark, it's just SMS (unless you're on an iPhone that will automatically use iMessage). For my circles of friends and family it's either SMS or iMessage and iMessage is only because most people don't realise that it's not SMS. I am a little confused as to why they don't simple sneak RCS in, like Apple have done with iMessage. Just upgrade the users to RCS if available and fallback to SMS if not.

etaioinshrdlu 7y ago

I'm a 20 something in tech circles in the West Coast of the US and I use SMS at least some of the time to communicate with: * Brother * Mother * Father * Uncle 1 * Uncle 2 * Roommate 1 * Roommate 2 * Friend of roommate * Cousin * Business partner All of that is in just the last week. SMS is the first messaging system softened mentioned when meeting new people. Because it's a lowest common demoninator. Why am I not cool enough to hang out with Whatsapp-using people? Joking....

maratc 7y ago
The reason you don't use WhatsApp is that the people you communicate with don't use WhatsApp. The reason they don't use WhatsApp is that the people they communicate with (this includes you) don't use WhatsApp. This is called "network effect", where the value of the product for you is amplified as more and more other people use the same product. You can get a value out of a microwave oven, even if no other people ever use it; you can't get a value out of WhatsApp if other people don't use it, since there's not much value in WhatsApp-ing yourself. The question, then, becomes: Why the US doesn't get value out of WhatsApp?, and this has to do with history. As people started to use messaging (only SMS existed at that point) instead of calling, the US carriers responded by increasing the basic subscription price while including unlimited messaging (SMS). The relatively rich US population could bear this added cost. This, however, was not the situation in pretty much the rest of the world, where the SMS was either an expensive "added value service" (not good for the customer), or "unlimited within provider" (again, not good for the customer who has to guess whether their SMS is going to be free or not). As of 2010, when WhatsApp started gaining popularity, its value in the US was questionable, since no-additional-price unlimited SMS was a viable alternative (as it still is). The rest of the world have seen a tremendous value in unlimited and free alternative to the expensive SMS. (WhatsApp pricing was $0 for unlimited messaging in the first year, and $1 per year after that.) With that value, the rest of the world switched swiftly. Not all of them went to WhatsApp, as Viber seems to be the most popular in Eastern Europe and LINE in Japan.