6 ms·

Popularity doesn’t have any affect on how many people you need to build it.

shubb 4y ago
Presumably a lot of these are content moderation staff, often much cheaper than engineers. Facebook claimed to have made good progress in the last year automating moderation, but could also just be backing off on moderation to reduce costs at increased risk of regulation. Often that kind of staff will be employed via agencies, so it's difficult to really compare between companies as we don't have the numbers. For instance, Apple presumably need a lot of staff to moderate apple pay, but if they have outsourced the rolls we won't know how many there are or see if they get cut.
- dekleinewolf 4y ago
  We're specifically talking WhatsApp, there's no moderation in private messaging.
oblio 4y ago
Oh, so that's why we have millions of blog articles about how to scale software and software organizations? Because software used by 10k people needs as many features and infrastructure care and investment as one used by 3 billion people?
- yebyen 4y ago
  No need for egregious hyperbole, there are well more than 10k iPhones in the USA
- tarsinge 4y ago
  That's not how it works, WhatsApp had 50 engineers when it had 900M users[0]. Beside iMessage is not only used by 10k, some estimates put it at more than 1 billion users[1]. [0]https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-users-50-engineers/ https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-us... [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2022/09/10/why-apple-iphone-ipad-mac-google-android-and-even-windows-10-users-need-secure-messaging/?sh=131ea6487fd4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2022/09/10/why-apple...
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    iMessage has a lot of users if you count people with iphones who very occasionally try to send a text but end up using iMessage. I count as one but it still is completely irrelevant to me. WhatsApp is where everything interesting is.
    - obiefernandez 4y ago
      Same here. I’m always shocked when I meet someone that doesn’t use WhatsApp
      - pwinnski 4y ago
        I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use WeChat I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Signal I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Facebook Messenger I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use LINE I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Telegram I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use QQ etc. It is true that WhatsApp seems to be the largest, but it's still used by fewer than 25% of humans, so you might be shocked often.
        prng2021 4y ago
        25% of humans is astonishing considering only about 2/3rds of humans have internet access.
      - Supermancho 4y ago
        I'm always surprised when I meet someone who does. None of my friends (+their family) or my family have ever used it. Nobody I hang out with will even say they have whatsapp. Maybe it's because we're "desktop people", which doesn't explain the lack of participation by someone like my wife. She uses her phone almost exclusively. shrug
        llampx 4y ago
        US vs ROTW

Presumably a lot of these are content moderation staff, often much cheaper than engineers. Facebook claimed to have made good progress in the last year automating moderation, but could also just be backing off on moderation to reduce costs at increased risk of regulation. Often that kind of staff will be employed via agencies, so it's difficult to really compare between companies as we don't have the numbers. For instance, Apple presumably need a lot of staff to moderate apple pay, but if they have outsourced the rolls we won't know how many there are or see if they get cut.

dekleinewolf 4y ago
We're specifically talking WhatsApp, there's no moderation in private messaging.

oblio 4y ago

Oh, so that's why we have millions of blog articles about how to scale software and software organizations? Because software used by 10k people needs as many features and infrastructure care and investment as one used by 3 billion people?

yebyen 4y ago
No need for egregious hyperbole, there are well more than 10k iPhones in the USA
tarsinge 4y ago
That's not how it works, WhatsApp had 50 engineers when it had 900M users[0]. Beside iMessage is not only used by 10k, some estimates put it at more than 1 billion users[1]. [0]https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-users-50-engineers/ https://www.wired.com/2015/09/whatsapp-serves-900-million-us... [1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2022/09/10/why-apple-iphone-ipad-mac-google-android-and-even-windows-10-users-need-secure-messaging/?sh=131ea6487fd4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2022/09/10/why-apple...
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  iMessage has a lot of users if you count people with iphones who very occasionally try to send a text but end up using iMessage. I count as one but it still is completely irrelevant to me. WhatsApp is where everything interesting is.
  - obiefernandez 4y ago
    Same here. I’m always shocked when I meet someone that doesn’t use WhatsApp
    - pwinnski 4y ago
      I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use WeChat I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Signal I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Facebook Messenger I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use LINE I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use Telegram I'm always shocked when I meet someone that doesn't use QQ etc. It is true that WhatsApp seems to be the largest, but it's still used by fewer than 25% of humans, so you might be shocked often.
      - prng2021 4y ago
        25% of humans is astonishing considering only about 2/3rds of humans have internet access.
    - Supermancho 4y ago
      I'm always surprised when I meet someone who does. None of my friends (+their family) or my family have ever used it. Nobody I hang out with will even say they have whatsapp. Maybe it's because we're "desktop people", which doesn't explain the lack of participation by someone like my wife. She uses her phone almost exclusively. shrug
      - llampx 4y ago
        US vs ROTW