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Google Close to Acquiring WhatsApp for $1 Billion?
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worthless? why has so many ppl bought it then? what cell plan includes cross country txting?
Texting is the #1 use for smartphones (they spend more time texting than any other activity on their smart phones), so by acquiring the largest texting network in the world Google gains all their relationships, what/where/when you are texting about and who you are text to.
The most used activities for smartphone use is texting, navigation, email, social media, and then phone calls. So now google has a good foothold in the top 3 activities.
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SMS and MMS are synonymous these days.
Still, paying $1B for a massive database doesn't seem very Google esque. Google is good at acquiring things for free (hence, their huge success with the best search engine on the planet).
nick_elt said:
Not saying that instant messaging is useless, i'm saying its useless to pay for something you can get for free:
http://gigaom.com/2009/07/15/10-instant-messaging-apps-for-the-iphone/
of course they wont, google will want it on as many devices as possible, make it free and load it with ads.
wow. that's alot of moola
I use what'sapp ALL the time. Mainly because my groups of friends have different types of phone, so group messaging is easy with this (of course I group iMessage those that have iphones)
I use what'sapp ALL the time. Mainly because my groups of friends have different types of phone, so group messaging is easy with this (of course I group iMessage those that have iphones)
its not the US users... you are on an apple forum. It's the apple users. I live in USA and I know a LOT of people who use whatsapp
Yea I have unlimited text but only doemstic, international texts sent overseas or sent by me when I am travelling cost. So yea I like Whatapp and imessage for that reason. Except I hope Google don't load it with ads.
Google will sell it as a cross platform "imessage" but better and probably integrate it in the sms/voice/talk application
I don't like WhatsApp, even though everybody here seems to use it. It just looks unpolished, has slow support, is known for several security issues, it has no desktop client and unnecessarily uses your real phone number. I had it working on my macbook once, but that was just due to bad security (via jabber etc).
Google might fix this, but than again it's Google.
Google might fix this, but than again it's Google.
To all those ignorant people white don't see the potential:
1. Whatsapp is free.Texting outside the US usually isn't. Internationally, this is nice, especially in Europe (many different countries).
2. Whatsapp has group chat. This is a HUGE advantage, if not the biggest advantage.
3. Whatsapp is cross-platform.
4. Sharing photos is much easier and better through Whatsapp than sms.
1. Whatsapp is free.Texting outside the US usually isn't. Internationally, this is nice, especially in Europe (many different countries).
2. Whatsapp has group chat. This is a HUGE advantage, if not the biggest advantage.
3. Whatsapp is cross-platform.
4. Sharing photos is much easier and better through Whatsapp than sms.
I'd love to see iMessage go cross platform. If Apple released an Android, BB and Windows Phone iMessage app they could have a serious competitor to the other messaging apps out there.
As for Whatsapp - I love this app and I'm a little disappointed that they may sell out. I was impressed by the Whatsapp guys' determination to make a great app without ads. I don't begrudge them the huge payday but I also don't like the idea of having yet another service in the hands of the all seeing Goog. I like to support and use independent services where I can.
As for Whatsapp - I love this app and I'm a little disappointed that they may sell out. I was impressed by the Whatsapp guys' determination to make a great app without ads. I don't begrudge them the huge payday but I also don't like the idea of having yet another service in the hands of the all seeing Goog. I like to support and use independent services where I can.
Google wont sell it, their business model isnt structured from making money from apps. It will be free if they do buy it.
Ah, so once an app acquires a large user base, then companies view the potential and it's sharks circling the app time.
Google buys the users they could give a damn about the app. Google wants to scrape user data.
from just personal observation only, I notice alot of people are trending towards FB chatting...and since FB is now having deep integration into smartphones, it has the opportunity to supplant SMS. What's app is one of the few 'chatting' networks, that has an active user base that even comes close to the size of FB's.
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To me this is a scary thing... Big G for sure is buying the data related to the app, not the app and its structures.... By this they can control more the flux of info from a person to another and the links between each of them.... a sort of wireless big brother... at this point the right question is: now watts app is independent and is a good service.... will it remain good even if google buys it?
