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That would make for a very nice middle finger to Facebook if they pull this off (allegedly they attempted to acquire WhatsApp before) But $1 billion? I'm not s

by Mahn 14y ago

That would make for a very nice middle finger to Facebook if they pull this off (allegedly they attempted to acquire WhatsApp before) But $1 billion? I'm not sure if that evaluation is entirely justified. It has a pretty large user base, granted, but there's practically nothing that warrants people will continue using it in the next 5 years.

sthkr 14y ago
It probably isn't just like Instagram wasn't but companies like WhatsApp like to play hard ball and negotiate higher bids because they know they're in demand and Google would rather overpay to gain an advantage then starting from scratch. Google talk isn't used much!
rubyrescue 14y ago
Outside of the US WhatsApp rules with an iron fist. Every non-tech person I know uses it. I hear it dropped in casual conversation at the table next to me in restaurants. It's got a public mindshare greater than Skype. And once all your friends are on it, it's not so easy to switch.
- loceng 14y ago
  I use it to regularly connect with my good friend who's in Hong Kong; He was the one who first used it and got me to download it.
- JOfferijns 14y ago
  I can definitely confirm this, at least in The Netherlands literally everybody uses Whatsapp and it has slowly become a verb - "I'll whatsapp you the details!". It's far from the best messaging app, but definitely the most popular (in Europe).
  - soneca 14y ago
    In Brazil here, my girlfriend literally bought a new phone, a low-budget android, just to talk with her best friends through Whatsapp.
    - bosky101 14y ago
      India too...( where whatsapp adoption spread virally from blackberry, symbian, etc first and smartphones later) i work on an im client[1], and my mom sent me a link about whatsapp :) [1] to be fair, verbs.im is a gtalk/aol/yahoo multi-protocol client. infact, one day we could wrap over whatsapp as well. not exactly re-building a new graph but re-using your existing lists.
- BruceM 14y ago
  "Line" is doing very well in places as well.
- stock_toaster 14y ago
  Anecdote: Nobody I know uses it. I never hear it talked about at nearby tables.
- danoprey 14y ago
  In Europe it rules with an iron fist. Plenty of massive competitors elsewhere, especially with Asia and WeChat (Weixin - China), Line, Kakao...
- brosephius 14y ago
  Pretty fascinating reading the comments here about how big WhatsApp is outside of the US. I've never encountered anybody using it here, never would have guessed it's so popular elsewhere that it's been turned into a verb. I think this is a great example of why you should never be afraid to try and reinvent something. Even a concept as simple as messaging apparently still had a (potential) billion dollar opportunity.
ealexhudson 14y ago
If they're genuinely doing $100M revenue a year, it's not far off: you'd assume that they could grow a bit more, and maybe raise subs a little bit, and suddenly they're a $0.5B/yr company, without having done much work. I would be amazed if they're doing $100M/yr but who knows.
slaxman 14y ago
What's App is huge in India. The standard term here is "Whatsapp me". I almost stopped using sms & almost entirely use whatsapp. Simple and clutter free. One thing that worries me with Google's purchase is the ads. Google will want to introduce while I would prefer to pay the annual fee and keep it ad free. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
Achshar 14y ago
The number of people who use whatsapp is very high even in my not so techie circle of acquaintances in a developing country. Not to mention it has direct access to all the phone books of every user along with their very real name and other info. This is more of an asset that cannot be converted into money directly (or indirectly legally at least)
omonra 14y ago
I guess it's more useful to more people around the world than Instagram. So there's one benchmark :)

by Mahn 14y ago

sthkr 14y ago

It probably isn't just like Instagram wasn't but companies like WhatsApp like to play hard ball and negotiate higher bids because they know they're in demand and Google would rather overpay to gain an advantage then starting from scratch. Google talk isn't used much!

rubyrescue 14y ago

Outside of the US WhatsApp rules with an iron fist. Every non-tech person I know uses it. I hear it dropped in casual conversation at the table next to me in restaurants. It's got a public mindshare greater than Skype. And once all your friends are on it, it's not so easy to switch.

loceng 14y ago
I use it to regularly connect with my good friend who's in Hong Kong; He was the one who first used it and got me to download it.
JOfferijns 14y ago
I can definitely confirm this, at least in The Netherlands literally everybody uses Whatsapp and it has slowly become a verb - "I'll whatsapp you the details!". It's far from the best messaging app, but definitely the most popular (in Europe).
- soneca 14y ago
  In Brazil here, my girlfriend literally bought a new phone, a low-budget android, just to talk with her best friends through Whatsapp.
  - bosky101 14y ago
    India too...( where whatsapp adoption spread virally from blackberry, symbian, etc first and smartphones later) i work on an im client[1], and my mom sent me a link about whatsapp :) [1] to be fair, verbs.im is a gtalk/aol/yahoo multi-protocol client. infact, one day we could wrap over whatsapp as well. not exactly re-building a new graph but re-using your existing lists.
BruceM 14y ago
"Line" is doing very well in places as well.
stock_toaster 14y ago
Anecdote: Nobody I know uses it. I never hear it talked about at nearby tables.
danoprey 14y ago
In Europe it rules with an iron fist. Plenty of massive competitors elsewhere, especially with Asia and WeChat (Weixin - China), Line, Kakao...
brosephius 14y ago
Pretty fascinating reading the comments here about how big WhatsApp is outside of the US. I've never encountered anybody using it here, never would have guessed it's so popular elsewhere that it's been turned into a verb. I think this is a great example of why you should never be afraid to try and reinvent something. Even a concept as simple as messaging apparently still had a (potential) billion dollar opportunity.

ealexhudson 14y ago

If they're genuinely doing $100M revenue a year, it's not far off: you'd assume that they could grow a bit more, and maybe raise subs a little bit, and suddenly they're a $0.5B/yr company, without having done much work. I would be amazed if they're doing $100M/yr but who knows.

slaxman 14y ago

What's App is huge in India. The standard term here is "Whatsapp me". I almost stopped using sms & almost entirely use whatsapp. Simple and clutter free. One thing that worries me with Google's purchase is the ads. Google will want to introduce while I would prefer to pay the annual fee and keep it ad free. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Achshar 14y ago

The number of people who use whatsapp is very high even in my not so techie circle of acquaintances in a developing country. Not to mention it has direct access to all the phone books of every user along with their very real name and other info. This is more of an asset that cannot be converted into money directly (or indirectly legally at least)

omonra 14y ago

I guess it's more useful to more people around the world than Instagram. So there's one benchmark :)