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I find it amazing how people forget that being a monopolistic power doesn't help if your product sucks: Google has, time and time again, failed to gain traction

I find it amazing how people forget that being a monopolistic power doesn't help if your product sucks: Google has, time and time again, failed to gain traction in the messaging app market on Android, the market being entirely occupied by competitors like WhatsApp. Chrome won partly because of the marketing and being preinstalled, sure, but also by being a good product. If nagging people to install Chrome was all it took to win, then why is Edge in such a precarious position on Windows with all the nagging Windows 10 and 11 brought? Microsoft failed to succeed time and time again. People on HN have weird preconceptions about how suggestion and marketing works.

Dah00n 3y ago
I don't know where you are from but you seem very biased to your own friend or country bubble. For reference I don't know anyone at all who use WhatsApp. I use Google Chat and Facebook Messenger with a few but SMS with Google's RCS with everyone else, including my younger and much older family members.
- wslh 3y ago
  WhatsApp is used all over Europe and Latin America. Very easy to check. For example [1]. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311229/whatsapp-usage-messaging-app-users-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311229/whatsapp-usage-m...
  - Dah00n 3y ago
    According to statista.com 12% use WhatsApp in Denmark. As I said, living in a bubble if one believes everyone uses it. Edit: A quick search said this from the same source: >Using WhatsApp less often than once a month was the most common usage frequency among Danes in 2019, according to 23 percent of the service users. 15 percent used the app weekly and 13 percent used it several times a day.
    - wslh 3y ago
      Please don't joke about Denmark, it has a population of 6m. Anyway, it is easy to check what I said, I am from Latam and anyone uses WP.
- n0tinventedhere 3y ago
  I live in France, and WhatsApp has a pretty big presence. Not a monopoly style one though, there's plenty of other apps used: Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, Discord.. I have friends who have family in other countries and some different apps will be dominant, like Viber, but the common theme is that the only time I've seen people use SMS is when they're unsure as to whether the other person has any other means of communication. Most importantly, I've never seen someone use Google's own non-RCS chat apps, like Google Chat, Google Hangout, Google Allo, Google Talk.. Google has had many chat apps, sometimes just different names for the same thing, but in the end, they have no users here. Google continuously tried to make a dent in that market and failed. RCS is a non-starter if you need to do group chats with iPhone users or send them pictures without a massive loss in quality, as iPhones do not support RCS. As long as Apple refuses to support it, it will continue being a terrible choice in any country with significant Apple user base. An Android user with WhatsApp shares an identical experience with an iPhone user with WhatsApp. RCS on the other hand will drop you back to what cell phone messaging was many decades ago.
mrguyorama 3y ago
>I find it amazing how people forget that being a monopolistic power doesn't help if your product sucks: Which is why none of our companies use microsoft teams, right? Or wait, maybe when it comes to products that aren't that different, what comes with the package matters.

Dah00n 3y ago

I don't know where you are from but you seem very biased to your own friend or country bubble. For reference I don't know anyone at all who use WhatsApp. I use Google Chat and Facebook Messenger with a few but SMS with Google's RCS with everyone else, including my younger and much older family members.

wslh 3y ago
WhatsApp is used all over Europe and Latin America. Very easy to check. For example [1]. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311229/whatsapp-usage-messaging-app-users-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1311229/whatsapp-usage-m...
- Dah00n 3y ago
  According to statista.com 12% use WhatsApp in Denmark. As I said, living in a bubble if one believes everyone uses it. Edit: A quick search said this from the same source: >Using WhatsApp less often than once a month was the most common usage frequency among Danes in 2019, according to 23 percent of the service users. 15 percent used the app weekly and 13 percent used it several times a day.
  - wslh 3y ago
    Please don't joke about Denmark, it has a population of 6m. Anyway, it is easy to check what I said, I am from Latam and anyone uses WP.
n0tinventedhere 3y ago
I live in France, and WhatsApp has a pretty big presence. Not a monopoly style one though, there's plenty of other apps used: Facebook Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, Discord.. I have friends who have family in other countries and some different apps will be dominant, like Viber, but the common theme is that the only time I've seen people use SMS is when they're unsure as to whether the other person has any other means of communication. Most importantly, I've never seen someone use Google's own non-RCS chat apps, like Google Chat, Google Hangout, Google Allo, Google Talk.. Google has had many chat apps, sometimes just different names for the same thing, but in the end, they have no users here. Google continuously tried to make a dent in that market and failed. RCS is a non-starter if you need to do group chats with iPhone users or send them pictures without a massive loss in quality, as iPhones do not support RCS. As long as Apple refuses to support it, it will continue being a terrible choice in any country with significant Apple user base. An Android user with WhatsApp shares an identical experience with an iPhone user with WhatsApp. RCS on the other hand will drop you back to what cell phone messaging was many decades ago.

mrguyorama 3y ago

>I find it amazing how people forget that being a monopolistic power doesn't help if your product sucks: Which is why none of our companies use microsoft teams, right? Or wait, maybe when it comes to products that aren't that different, what comes with the package matters.