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Facebook Buying Messaging App WhatsApp for $16 Billion

heisenberg123 said:
I guess its more meaningful for people with friends and family in other countries or for group chatting

you can do what most apps do with some sort of native built in app but we still download apps to get a different look, feel or experience
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Possibly. I've been using Skype for that, but I can see WhatsApp being a Skype alternative.

I just think WhatsApp isn't the most useful app for the public at large. It has its place, but for most of us it's just like another way to send texts.

I love downloading apps to get a different look, feel, or experience, but not when it requires that I get OTHER people to do the same in order to use it, y'know? Like, I'll try other browsers, other music players, other keyboards (if I were jailbroken), but it's like trying out a different Scrabble game when all your friends are playing Words with Friends. Trying to tell them all to join you on this other app is a PITA.
 
Anyone who doesn't think this is a big deal is kidding themselves. Whatsapp is probably the leader in cross platform messaging. Integrating them with Facebook could potentially turn Facebook into the go/to messaging app. Yet another way to stay ahead of any other potential competitors. They're turning Google-like in their breadth of services designed to keep people within the ecosystem.
 
smithrh said:
Zuck:

"There's a shark over there I just just gotta jump over..."
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Done and done. Especially since it could end up $19 billion if the restricted stock units are distributed. Of course who knows what the terms and conditions are on that piece. But still, no wonder the markets didn't like it. It's just so over the top for what it is, and that's before you factor in the bail rate of people who don't want anything to do w/ FB or who just like being out on the edge with a startup's app.

$19 billion, $16 billion.... the GDP of half the countries in Africa fall lower than that.

I liked a DealBook comment in the Times: BH (Houston, Texas) - "16 billion is more than the sum Microsoft paid for Nokia, and Google paid for Motorola, combined. Those companies actually tangible goods that did more than text message. 16 billion is almost three times NASA's annual science budget that put a car-sized rover on Mars."
 
iShater said:
I HATE FB with a passion and avoid using anything that is owned by FB or is linked to it.
:
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That's the typical response from most people who friend strangers to increase their friends total and wonder why they have so much garbage in their feed and get advertisements for ED products because of their web surfing habits. :)

Those who treat their FB account like a chat room and not a private room are the haters.
Responsibility on usage goes a long way to make FB useful, productive and fun.
 
Paradoxally said:
Well, money can buy a lot of things, but not class. Facebook is still crap.
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that's your opinion if facebook is classy or crappy. others can think differently.

but there's 1 thing you and i can see it as a fact....FB stock is raising!

so i don't think they are in the business of staying classy....they are in business to make money. and they are doing the right things right now.
 
iLoveiTunes said:
oh, so your poor internet connection is to be blamed for it... Yeap right
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This is false. iMessage does not compress photos unlike BBM or Whatsapp. To make matter worse iPhone camera app doesn't have the option to take smaller resolution picture.

That and spotty Apple server result in slow upload when you send your pics using iMessage. Doesn't matter if you have speedy network, it will still be slow.

You send a picture taking a bath with your dog weigh 3MB. Yeah, priceless :rolleyes:

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Pompiliu said:
You're paying too much for just 100mbit/s.
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Well I paid equivalent to $40 for 5 Mbps DSL line. And this is the best I can get over here. You want to switch place? See if you still feel pay too much for 100 Mbps :eek:
 
JaySoul said:
Apple messed up so royally by not buying WhatsApp years ago. Same goes for Google.

iMessage and Hangouts are vastly inferior.

Well played, Facebook.
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Care to elaborate? iMessage does everything I want it to, perfectly: and in the rare instances I am texting someone who doesn't have a Mac or iDevice, I revert to good old fashioned SMS. It all works fine.

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iSayuSay said:
. iMessage does not compress photos unlike BBM or Whatsapp.
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Which is why I want iMessage: I am a photographer: when I send someone a photo, I want them to gat full quality. My cellular and land connection are more than fast enough to make that painless
 
bawbac said:
That's the typical response from most people who friend strangers to increase their friends total and wonder why they have so much garbage in their feed and get advertisements for ED products because of their web surfing habits. :)

Those who treat their FB account like a chat room and not a private room are the haters.
Responsibility on usage goes a long way to make FB useful, productive and fun.
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Useful, productive, and fun? That's the typical response from people who are public spokespersons for the company ;)

The amount of garbage people post, and the fact that there are so many folks who don't realize how much personal information is exposed is just crazy.
 
bawbac said:
That's the typical response from most people who friend strangers to increase their friends total and wonder why they have so much garbage in their feed and get advertisements for ED products because of their web surfing habits. :)

Those who treat their FB account like a chat room and not a private room are the haters.
Responsibility on usage goes a long way to make FB useful, productive and fun.
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I have no strangers on my Facebook and I don't particularly like it or enjoy the slow creep of it across the internet and into my life. Companies like Facebook and Google obviously want to own as much of my internet experience as possible and I really dislike that. Just because you're happy with Facebook doesn't mean that the rest of us are ~using it wrong~ because we don't.

Ted13 said:
Care to elaborate? iMessage does everything I want it to, perfectly: and in the rare instances I am texting someone who doesn't have a Mac or iDevice, I revert to good old fashioned SMS. It all works fine.
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I was using it because I have a friend overseas who I text quite a bit, Whatsapp doesn't require me to get an international messaging plan, it just uses data.
 
Ted13 said:
Care to elaborate? iMessage does everything I want it to, perfectly: and in the rare instances I am texting someone who doesn't have a Mac or iDevice, I revert to good old fashioned SMS. It all works fine.

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Which is why I want iMessage: I am a photographer: when I send someone a photo, I want them to gat full quality. My cellular and land connection are more than fast enough to make that painless
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How about some options to choose resolution? How about, you know preview photos? Do they need to be in full resolution? Not everyone is photographer, nor everyone want the full sized photos either
 
heehee said:
Not everyone uses iPhone.
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Who doesn't have unlimited texting? I don't see what the use of the services are for. If I am out of the country and need to contact someone that bad that doesn't have an iPod, iPhone, iPad or a Mac then I will send them an email or call them for the $1 it costs.
 
luckydcxx said:
Who doesn't have unlimited texting? I don't see what the use of the services are for. If I am out of the country and need to contact someone that bad that doesn't have an iPod, iPhone, iPad or a Mac then I will send them an email or call them for the $1 it costs.
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I live in the US so I can sort of understand where you are coming from by saying that. But you do realize that most people live outside of US, which is a lot of people do not use iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. At this point, your unlimited text message is more or less useless, even if you can send free international text message the other party might not be able to send free international text message back.

If you have no friends, relative, colleague, or even business partner outside of the US, then this of course is not really useful for you. It's like saying I live in NY, why do I need a car? But if I REALLY need the car I'll pay for $20 dollars from time to time.
 
Rudy69 said:
In other news....I still don't understand why people use WhatsApp
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Majority of carriers still charge separately for SMS plans. And international SMS plans? HA! 25 cents for every received and sent international message on AT&T when whatsapp doesn't charge any fees.
 
wow... feels like we're back to 1999 again! no valuation is absurd.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
I read where WhatApp has 450 million monthly average users of which 70% are active every day. That's a lot of people. Google cornered the advertising market, Facebook is cornering the social media market.
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That assumes that what they do is unique, the fact that they now needed to buy another company with almost as many daily users as Facebook is proof that what they do is not unique. Internet and it's different protocols are by their very nature 'social', which is why we see these platforms come and go.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
Yeah, Zuck's a real idiot. I can only dream of being that stupid and idiotic.
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OK but you're talking about the brilliance of the Facebook concept and making it happen. Now it's out there with all its good points and plenty of not so great issues, and now he's already cashed out some of the billions he's made. You could ask how much skin he really feels he has in this game, in the sense of how much can you care about the next zillion billion. Others, big investors, will be looking harder at the wisdom of this particular acquisition. If you have millions of FB shares in some fund that you manage, then it's likely you are not exactly thrilled this evening.
 
Everyone complains that facebooks product sucks, they're a terrible company, and Zuckerborg is a first-rate asshat. How do they still exist?

How has, in all this time, no one else put together a decent social media platform that people actually like? Or an auction site? I'd have thought after the first 6 months the great "competitive ideas marketplace of the innernet" would have laid waste to Facebook and Ebay both. Neither company should have gotten this far.

Yet they continue, with their billions. Crazy.
 
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