> if Facebook can't afford to operate without tricks like that, smaller sites have even less chance. It could be the opposite. The ambitions of social media o

> if Facebook can't afford to operate without tricks like that, smaller sites have even less chance. It could be the opposite. The ambitions of social media operators need to be downsized. One of the most salient data points is that WhatsApp served a half billion users with 50 employees when they were acquired by Facebook. And reportedly they were profitable at that point by charging $1 per user per year after the first year. By 2018 Signal had already made a substantial entry into the messaging market with [only 2.3 FTE engineers on average](https://signal.org/blog/signal-foundation/ https://signal.org/blog/signal-foundation/) (I'm not sure on the current headcount but I'm guessing it's still on the order of magnitude of the WhatsApp numbers), and it is self-sustaining based largely on a $50m endowment provided by one individual (Brian Acton, not ironically the co-founder of WhatsApp). It's totally conceivable that for the type of social media that people prefer (no algorithm in the timeline, no tracking, etc.) a very small organization could provide it. Could the Signal foundation develop a competitor to Twitter or Facebook, or could the social features and groups in apps like Signal or Telegram (also a relatively small team) continue to chip away at the jobs that people hire Facebook for? I don't see a strong argument against this. Andrew Carnegie decided to put libraries in cities all across America because he thought he could make a major contribution to the needs of the day through improving access to literacy and self-education to those who otherwise couldn't afford it. From what I can tell [Brian Acton](https://www.forbesindia.com/article/special/i-am-the-david-going-against-the-goliath-that-i-created-brian-acton-of-signal/65663/1 https://www.forbesindia.com/article/special/i-am-the-david-g...) is doing the same by ensuring that private communication is free and available to even the least amongst us. Why would we assume that we'll see less and not more of this sort of thing? > Acton: In some ways, I'm the David going against the Goliath that I created. I think that I stand on my principles the most, having been in the industry and seeing how the industry has developed around advertising and behaviour-tracking and user-tracking, I’m here to stand on my principles and present alternatives. I’m not going to just say the world should be a different place. I’m actually going to try and build the world a better place and that’s why I wake up every morning. That’s why I go to work every morning and that’s why I don't sit on a beach and sip cocktails.