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WhatsApp became popular long before Meta bought it in 2014. Signal and Telegram both came late to the scene, both around the time of the WhatsApp acquisition. W

by wongarsu 10mo ago

WhatsApp became popular long before Meta bought it in 2014. Signal and Telegram both came late to the scene, both around the time of the WhatsApp acquisition. Whatsapp was simply in the right place at the right time with little competition, and a combination of network effects and Meta mostly leaving it alone make it hard to get enough traction for anything else The US has more of an Apple-monoculture and apparently moved to unlimited SMS plans much earlier than Europe, so iMessage was able to fill the same niche

blitzar 10mo ago
Green bubble / blue bubble social and culture wars are not a thing in Europe.
- shiroiuma 10mo ago
  They're not a thing almost anywhere outside the US (and maybe Canada).
- Longlius 10mo ago
  They're not really a thing in the US either, outside of people trying to engagement bait on social media.
wanderingstan 10mo ago
And to give them credit: WhatsApp also had brilliant engineering that was able to scale with their popularity.