7 ms·

If you want evidence that HN has a fetish for money, it's that the technical details of Whatsapp's success are only closely inspected now that gratuitous cash h

If you want evidence that HN has a fetish for money, it's that the technical details of Whatsapp's success are only closely inspected now that gratuitous cash has been thrown around. You may view this comment as too cynical for this particular topic, but the ridiculous surge in Whatsapp stories doesn't lie. And of course we should inspect the action of successful companies. I am merely pointing at the crude vulgarity of the Valley's barometer for success.

dodyg 13y ago
It is quite well known that WhatsApp uses Erlang. I bet it must been discussed here already.
- amirmc 13y ago
  Perhaps among the Erlang community but I only found out as a result of digging into the company. Would be great to have someone from WhatsApp speak at CUFP this year [1]. If anyone reading this can encourage them to do so (or put me in touch with someone one there), that would be great. [1] http://cufp.org/ http://cufp.org/
- krakensden 13y ago
  The Snabb Switch* people have been talking about it a lot on HN, and there was a link to their github the other day. *My understanding is that it's a similarly architected system, but built on a Linux/luajit stack
Kiro 13y ago
Just because you haven't seen this many articles about WhatsApp before doesn't mean they haven't been closely inspected before.
- Helianthus 13y ago
  This article is from March 2012. It has been posted twice before to HN to little impact. http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/prefix/0/Whatsapp%20scaling http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/prefix/0/Whatsapp%20s... (Correction: the presentation is from 2012; I don't know when it was posted online.)
  - saurik 13y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028547
MarkSweep 13y ago
I think the app may not be used much here so people were not expecting it to be bought for so much. Anecdotally I know people who use Line, WeChat, and GroupMe. I don't know anyone who uses Whatsapp.
- dodyg 13y ago
  If "here" means the US, then yeah. WhatsApp is replacing SMS with I guess pretty much the rest of the world. WhatsApp is also not associated with the titillating "share nude pics" culture of SnapChat.
  - usethis 13y ago
    Wasn't the US also slow in adopting SMS? http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/618c4f5c-37ac-11db-bc01-0000779e2340.html#axzz2tsG06YtY http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/618c4f5c-37ac-11db-bc01-0000779e23...
    - dodyg 13y ago
      Yup - I lived in NYC and Chicago from 2000 - 2006 - and as far as I can remember, I didn't see much usage of SMS at that time.
creamyhorror 13y ago
Is it really vulgar to desire money and take it as indicator of success, or are you holding people here to rather high standards?
- Helianthus 13y ago
  >Is it really vulgar to desire money and take it as indicator of success Yes? It is not only vulgar, it is utterly clueless.
  - x0054 13y ago
    Money is certainly not an indicator of true success, other than, of course, success of acquiring money. However, why is money vulgar. Sure, there are many vulgar things one can purchase with money. But money in and of it self isn't vulgar. Many people here want to understand how WhatsApp managed to convince someone to pay so much money for it, perhaps so they can replicate this success and also become rich. What's so wrong with that?
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      > perhaps so they can replicate this success and also become rich. What's so wrong with that? My theory: Perhaps because an ever growing population of tech professionals are disgusted with the race for more wealth? I will be the first to admit, I'm an Elon Musk fanboy, although I think its justified. Instagram. Whatsapp. Messaging apps! Billions of dollars! For messaging! With that same amount of cash, Musk has delivered goods to an orbiting space station and has succeeded in changing the direction of transportation, something an entire auto industry wouldn't (not couldn't, wouldn't) do. I could be wrong. Perhaps money is still the end goal for everyone. If its just to have money for money's sake, I feel sad for you. If its to pursue your passion, I think we can all empathize with that.
      - gaius 13y ago
        Musk had to make his fortune first...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
marknutter 13y ago
Please. Money is a measure of value, plain and simple. If a lot of smart people thought WhatsApp was worth 14B then it's probably worth taking a second look at what WhatsApp did to get to this point.
- Helianthus 13y ago
  This seems to me to be an excellent example of the kind of poor thinking money promotes; do prove me wrong. >If a lot of smart people thought WhatsApp was worth 14B Why are they smart? Because they have billions of dollars? Because Whatsapp is valuable? Because Whatsapp was less useful before the smart people bought it? Are you incapable of viewing the transaction of 16 billion as a possible utter mistake? As financial hand-waving assigning a liquid value to shares whose value might well be inflated? Money is a poor measure of value. Plain and simple. Are you drawn to the volume of the transaction because you think it signifies true success? > it's probably worth taking a second look at what WhatsApp did to get to this point. Something I never contested and agreed with explicitly.
  - dodyg 13y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner
  - parasubvert 13y ago
    > Money is a poor measure of value. Plain and simple. Are you drawn to the volume of the transaction because you think it signifies true success? Money is just a number. I can't quite tell if you're suggesting that value can't be quantified, or if you believe we could quantify value some other way that would be more functional than capital markets. Do Tell.
    - Helianthus 13y ago
      Value cannot be adequately quantified. At its best, money is an inadequate substitute for such a quantification that is often useful; at its worst, the failure to be mindful of that inadequacy exacerbates its inaccuracy.
Consultant32452 13y ago
I disagree. If a food charity enhanced their distribution system in a way that allowed them to feed an additional million people internationally I think we'd be just as interested in what they changed in order to meet their goals. We're interested in any significant success. As it stands though, for any for-profit company, money is the primary measure of success.
gress 13y ago
I agree that money is not the only indicator, but how else do you propose that we direct our collective attention?

dodyg 13y ago

It is quite well known that WhatsApp uses Erlang. I bet it must been discussed here already.

amirmc 13y ago
Perhaps among the Erlang community but I only found out as a result of digging into the company. Would be great to have someone from WhatsApp speak at CUFP this year [1]. If anyone reading this can encourage them to do so (or put me in touch with someone one there), that would be great. [1] http://cufp.org/ http://cufp.org/
krakensden 13y ago
The Snabb Switch* people have been talking about it a lot on HN, and there was a link to their github the other day. *My understanding is that it's a similarly architected system, but built on a Linux/luajit stack

Kiro 13y ago

Just because you haven't seen this many articles about WhatsApp before doesn't mean they haven't been closely inspected before.

Helianthus 13y ago
This article is from March 2012. It has been posted twice before to HN to little impact. http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/prefix/0/Whatsapp%20scaling http://hn.algolia.com/#!/story/forever/prefix/0/Whatsapp%20s... (Correction: the presentation is from 2012; I don't know when it was posted online.)
- saurik 13y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3028547

MarkSweep 13y ago

I think the app may not be used much here so people were not expecting it to be bought for so much. Anecdotally I know people who use Line, WeChat, and GroupMe. I don't know anyone who uses Whatsapp.

dodyg 13y ago
If "here" means the US, then yeah. WhatsApp is replacing SMS with I guess pretty much the rest of the world. WhatsApp is also not associated with the titillating "share nude pics" culture of SnapChat.
- usethis 13y ago
  Wasn't the US also slow in adopting SMS? http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/618c4f5c-37ac-11db-bc01-0000779e2340.html#axzz2tsG06YtY http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/618c4f5c-37ac-11db-bc01-0000779e23...
  - dodyg 13y ago
    Yup - I lived in NYC and Chicago from 2000 - 2006 - and as far as I can remember, I didn't see much usage of SMS at that time.

creamyhorror 13y ago

Is it really vulgar to desire money and take it as indicator of success, or are you holding people here to rather high standards?

Helianthus 13y ago
>Is it really vulgar to desire money and take it as indicator of success Yes? It is not only vulgar, it is utterly clueless.
- x0054 13y ago
  Money is certainly not an indicator of true success, other than, of course, success of acquiring money. However, why is money vulgar. Sure, there are many vulgar things one can purchase with money. But money in and of it self isn't vulgar. Many people here want to understand how WhatsApp managed to convince someone to pay so much money for it, perhaps so they can replicate this success and also become rich. What's so wrong with that?
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    > perhaps so they can replicate this success and also become rich. What's so wrong with that? My theory: Perhaps because an ever growing population of tech professionals are disgusted with the race for more wealth? I will be the first to admit, I'm an Elon Musk fanboy, although I think its justified. Instagram. Whatsapp. Messaging apps! Billions of dollars! For messaging! With that same amount of cash, Musk has delivered goods to an orbiting space station and has succeeded in changing the direction of transportation, something an entire auto industry wouldn't (not couldn't, wouldn't) do. I could be wrong. Perhaps money is still the end goal for everyone. If its just to have money for money's sake, I feel sad for you. If its to pursue your passion, I think we can all empathize with that.
    - gaius 13y ago
      Musk had to make his fortune first...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

marknutter 13y ago

Please. Money is a measure of value, plain and simple. If a lot of smart people thought WhatsApp was worth 14B then it's probably worth taking a second look at what WhatsApp did to get to this point.

Helianthus 13y ago
This seems to me to be an excellent example of the kind of poor thinking money promotes; do prove me wrong. >If a lot of smart people thought WhatsApp was worth 14B Why are they smart? Because they have billions of dollars? Because Whatsapp is valuable? Because Whatsapp was less useful before the smart people bought it? Are you incapable of viewing the transaction of 16 billion as a possible utter mistake? As financial hand-waving assigning a liquid value to shares whose value might well be inflated? Money is a poor measure of value. Plain and simple. Are you drawn to the volume of the transaction because you think it signifies true success? > it's probably worth taking a second look at what WhatsApp did to get to this point. Something I never contested and agreed with explicitly.
- dodyg 13y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Warner
- parasubvert 13y ago
  > Money is a poor measure of value. Plain and simple. Are you drawn to the volume of the transaction because you think it signifies true success? Money is just a number. I can't quite tell if you're suggesting that value can't be quantified, or if you believe we could quantify value some other way that would be more functional than capital markets. Do Tell.
  - Helianthus 13y ago
    Value cannot be adequately quantified. At its best, money is an inadequate substitute for such a quantification that is often useful; at its worst, the failure to be mindful of that inadequacy exacerbates its inaccuracy.

Consultant32452 13y ago

I disagree. If a food charity enhanced their distribution system in a way that allowed them to feed an additional million people internationally I think we'd be just as interested in what they changed in order to meet their goals. We're interested in any significant success. As it stands though, for any for-profit company, money is the primary measure of success.

gress 13y ago

I agree that money is not the only indicator, but how else do you propose that we direct our collective attention?