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Facebook Buying Messaging App WhatsApp for $16 Billion

Rudy69 said:
In other news....I still don't understand why people use WhatsApp
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You def don't understand that in Europe we don't have contracts with unlimited SMS, calls, and all the other stuff. That's why people use Whatsapp. On the other hand, we don't sign ridiculous contracts with the devi.. I mean service providers. I think you should start to think globally when seeking for answers.
 
tongxinshe said:
It's not the most popular. By the definition of "popular", the messaging app that has the most user (either "registered" or "active") is WeChat. In fact, WeChat is also more functional. WeChat is first messaging app that introduced "short voice messaging".

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Where do you get all that stats, I am sure that Whatsapp is the #1 in the world, look at the app store it is always on top of the free apps and wechat is not.
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tongxinshe said:
It's not the most popular. By the definition of "popular", the messaging app that has the most user (either "registered" or "active") is WeChat. In fact, WeChat is also more functional. WeChat is first messaging app that introduced "short voice messaging".

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I have QQ and SMS for those people, they are absolutely the minority in my contact list.
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The numbers don't seem to show that for WeChat: http://qz.com/179007/wechat-is-nothing-like-whatsapp-and-that-makes-it-even-more-valuable/

Also, short voice messaging as in sending a quick voice message as a message (instead of text or image)? Haven't services like HeyTell (among others) been doing that for a long long time now, before WeChat even came out?
 
Tamagotchi said:
You def don't understand that in Europe we don't have contracts with unlimited SMS, calls, and all the other stuff. That's why people use Whatsapp. On the other hand, we don't sign ridiculous contracts with the devi.. I mean service providers. I think you should start to think globally when seeking for answers.
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Also in countries like Mexico and others in Latin America people don't have unlimited SMS messages.

Another important thing is that whatsapp has more features than SMS, it is faster, you can send images more easily, you can send videos, you have group chat and more features than SMS don't have, it is only a matter of time before people start using Whatsapp instead of SMS in countries where you have unlimited SMS like the USA. Because of this Facebook and other companies were very interested in buying whatsapp.

Also it is important to notice that the popularity of WhatsApp started because they release a Blackberry version, by doing that a lot of blackberry customers changed to Android and Iphone without worrying about leaving Blackberry Messenger and their blackberry phones.

I always say that one of the things that made blackberry stop selling phones was because of whatsapp and because of this I always say that Blackberry need to buy WhatsApp a long time ago.

One thing I don't like about whatsapp is that when you install it you need to transfer your contacts to their servers so that the app works better, they have millions of contact info in their servers and that info has a lot of value to companies like Facebook, also imagine the value of all the messages that people send in whatsapp.

Right now Facebook with Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, and other apps has more info than other company in the world and any government in the world, they know more about people than the USA government it is amazing don't you think so.
 
Pez555 said:
group chat.

in all I think Whatsapp provides a slicker experience than imessage.

Plus whatsapp is cross platform.
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Cross platform is a significant factor in the app's growth. iMessage will always be a niche product so long as it's not cross platform.
 
lke said:
.... One thing I don't like about whatsapp is that when you install it you need to transfer your contacts to their servers so that the app works better, they have millions of contact info in their servers and that info has a lot of value to companies like Facebook, also imagine the value of all the messages that people send in whatsapp.

Right now Facebook with Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook, and other apps has more info than other company in the world and any government in the world, they know more about people than the USA government it is amazing don't you think so.
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The tracking and marketing companies must be drooling. All that stuff on one big data farm.

"Oh please can I just rent it for one swipe through my analytics program pretty pleeeze I will give you five million bucks!"

Imagine back in the day when you went to a newsstand. Imagine they wouldn't sell you a newspaper for 35c without your first handing over your address book so they could photocopy it.

All I can say is we all sure rolled over for the surrender of privacy too easily. And there's no way back, since governments not only don't care, they'd like to dive into that data farm too in case they have missed something so far in their surveillance endeavors.
 
Doesn't anyone in the USA use "Line Chat"? here in Asia everyone left WhatsApp a couple years ago, now Line is really the only cross platform app used in the region.
 
sanook997 said:
Doesn't anyone in the USA use "Line Chat"? here in Asia everyone left WhatsApp a couple years ago, now Line is really the only cross platform app used in the region.
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A lot of these messaging apps are fairly regional in their popularity.
 
Funny thing is apple could give 27 million people $700 gift cards to get iPhones for that same amount of money.
 
Ok, if you have the money.....

you can spend it wherever you want....But not always makes sense at first tought. I suppose Facebook Board had done their homework....

If Facebook integrates WhatsApp as a messaging alternative....That is another history. But maybe I am shortsighted and dont see the use of two standalone apps or environments. Or maybe this is a "preemptive strike"....: Buying something before the item get out of hands, by price or another factor....:confused:

Stock markets dont take well this news, as today in the afternoon....:eek:

:):apple:
 
sshambles said:
Good riddance Whatsapp.

You were good for talking to non-iPhone people for free.
Viber will do for now... until it's bought out. :(
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Viber was bought out last week!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26186031

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vmachiel said:
To all the US people saying they never use it:

Yes I know you don't. But where I live, and in many other countries, it's the standard. First thing you install on your phone is Whatsapp. Nobody uses text, Whatsapp is the standard.
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Whatsapp is just an app, it's not a standard at all. It may be a standard between you and your friends, but for most people the standard is still SMS or iMessage between iOS devices. And even then, iMessage is not a standard as you have to rely on SMS as a backup to the iMessage system if a person doesn't have data access.
 
Any sane person must realize we're well into a new financial bubble. Everyone should also ask themselves how a few select big multinational corporations and banks are making more profits than ever, while the middle class in both USA and Europe is gradually becoming more and more impoverished.
 
tongxinshe said:
It's not the most popular. By the definition of "popular", the messaging app that has the most user (either "registered" or "active") is WeChat. In fact, WeChat is also more functional. WeChat is first messaging app that introduced "short voice messaging".

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I have QQ and SMS for those people, they are absolutely the minority in my contact list.
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If only I, or any of my friends has ever heard of WeChat I might use it, presumably this is an Asian client?
 
Oberhorst said:
Would be time for Apple and Google to get their differences sorted and make iMessage and Hangouts compatible to each other. In other words make it possible to send iMessages to Hangout and vice versa. And offer a desktop client for that system on Windows (and Linux for all I care).
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Apples best response would be to launch iMessage for Windows and Android. And include FaceTime and FaceTime Audio in it. For free.
 
Steve121178 said:
You are aware how fatally flawed Whatsapp is, right? All you need to do is spoof a phone number (if you know how) and gain access to that users chat and message history. The account information is only tied to the phone number which is all you need to gain access.
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What do you mean spoof a phone number? You need to get a verification text before you can access it.

Also when I talk about privacy, I mean in the sense of not being stalked by Facebook...

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BvizioN said:
You should have privacy concerns every time you log on the internet!
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I do, which is why I only share certain things on the Internet, but when it comes to chatting with my friends, I want the messages/pictures/videos to go to my friends, and only my friends, not to some big company so that they can analyse it all and sell it on to other people.
 
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