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The purpose of this piece is very simple: dang, WhatsApp was just bought for 19bn, someone please buy Kik, we are also a mobile instant messenger! Problem is, i
by cft 13y ago
The purpose of this piece is very simple: dang, WhatsApp was just bought for 19bn, someone please buy Kik, we are also a mobile instant messenger! Problem is, it does not work that way: you cannot argue that if Kik has 10% of WhatsApp's number of users it should be bought for 1.9bn: social networking/messaging is sort of winner takes it all game.
- kevando 13y agoI agree this is mostly a PR article, but it does remind me that I often think only in terms of the USA. When the world adds 1bn new smart phone users, it's going to be an INCREDIBLE improvement to their life and before the first thing they'll do is figure out how to message their friends. Messaging will be THE first thing all new smart phone users do. If it's not SMS, what is it?
- bmajz 13y agoYeah, I think this is at the base of US-centric folks' surprise at the WhatsApp deal. The difficulties in messaging simply aren't apparent when you get it free on almost every plan. Additionally, there is the extremely useful case of international messaging which is more apparent in places where you have smaller countries with lots of movement between them e.g. Europe or the Middle East. Just not a big a need in the US and thus hard to see value