4 ms·

> My phone's carrier also gives everyone several free GBs of WhatsApp data per month. Meta is surely compensating them in some form

by seany 3y ago

DanitaBaires 3y ago
It has been like that before Meta.
toast0 3y ago
I worked on carrier partnerships (among many other things) while I was at WhatsApp, from before FB through 2019. Carriers wanted to setup special pricing (including zero-rating) for WhatsApp with or without our help or approval. Before acquisition, the only compensation we provided was approval to use our brand (which we didn't have resources to litigate around the world over anyway), our list of IPs (and notifications when they changed), and maybe a little bit of guidance/support on how to identify traffic; although from conversations I had, the DPI vendors had ways of doing it anyway without our help. In return, WA got some amount of marketing, and sometimes access to zero cost SMS (used for registration). Additionally, by participating with carriers, rather than letting them do their own thing, we were able to influence them towards providing a good experience for users; WA did not approve of text only special pricing[1], it had to include attachments, and we did our best to keep carriers updated on IPs to reduce the amount of miscategorized usage leading to overage or connectivity problems. To my knowledge, there was only one deal with monetary compensation, but it theoretically flowed to WA, not to the carrier. My understanding is the carriers wanted to run these deals because they attract customers who often convert to full internet plans. Messaging is nice, but customers eventually get outside links and want to experience the web or other applications. Post acquisition, deals moved into Facebook's mobile partner portal, and afaik, there was still no compensation for WhatsApp deals, but the MPP does also offer analytics (audience insights) to carriers, and I'm not sure if it's a requirement to have a special pricing deal to get that or not. It's been several years, so it's possible the program has changed. [1] If you've seen that on planes, it wasn't authorized when I was there, and I don't think it's authorized now, but it doesn't stop a motivated network from providing the service.

> My phone's carrier also gives everyone several free GBs of WhatsApp data per month. Meta is surely compensating them in some form

by seany 3y ago

> My phone's carrier also gives everyone several free GBs of WhatsApp data per month. Meta is surely compensating them in some form

DanitaBaires 3y ago

It has been like that before Meta.

toast0 3y ago

I worked on carrier partnerships (among many other things) while I was at WhatsApp, from before FB through 2019. Carriers wanted to setup special pricing (including zero-rating) for WhatsApp with or without our help or approval. Before acquisition, the only compensation we provided was approval to use our brand (which we didn't have resources to litigate around the world over anyway), our list of IPs (and notifications when they changed), and maybe a little bit of guidance/support on how to identify traffic; although from conversations I had, the DPI vendors had ways of doing it anyway without our help. In return, WA got some amount of marketing, and sometimes access to zero cost SMS (used for registration). Additionally, by participating with carriers, rather than letting them do their own thing, we were able to influence them towards providing a good experience for users; WA did not approve of text only special pricing[1], it had to include attachments, and we did our best to keep carriers updated on IPs to reduce the amount of miscategorized usage leading to overage or connectivity problems. To my knowledge, there was only one deal with monetary compensation, but it theoretically flowed to WA, not to the carrier. My understanding is the carriers wanted to run these deals because they attract customers who often convert to full internet plans. Messaging is nice, but customers eventually get outside links and want to experience the web or other applications. Post acquisition, deals moved into Facebook's mobile partner portal, and afaik, there was still no compensation for WhatsApp deals, but the MPP does also offer analytics (audience insights) to carriers, and I'm not sure if it's a requirement to have a special pricing deal to get that or not. It's been several years, so it's possible the program has changed. [1] If you've seen that on planes, it wasn't authorized when I was there, and I don't think it's authorized now, but it doesn't stop a motivated network from providing the service.