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Google Close to Acquiring WhatsApp for $1 Billion?

The world needs to find something more worthwhile to spend ONE BILLION DOLLARS on (seriously? $1BN?! :O) like starvation and poverty, not piffling messaging apps for pampered westerners too scared of racking up a few dollars on messages.

Stupid.
 
After ruining Sparrow, I no longer trust Google to do the right thing with any company it acquires.

**** you, Google. You used to be cool.
 
mozumder said:
You'd figure Google could spend a few million just to GIVE IT AWAY to gain that many users.

Messaging apps are easy to gain user base.

In fact, Google could finally decide to release a Google Chat app on their own, with a few engineers, and some marketing/branding money.
Click to expand...

Yes I know. Piece of cake. I was just thinking that this morning when I was talking to all my friends using google talk. Oh wait...



Michael
 
blackcrayon said:
AT&T offers unlimited text messages. Unfortunately they ONLY offer that, which I don't want to pay for, so i have no text plan. This would help me use texts even less (free texting to a larger % of people i know).

It'd be funny if Apple responded with iMessage for Android (not their style, I know...)
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if apple afforded a imessages for andriod I would possibly switch my phone! that is the main thing holding me back.
 
DaveMcM76 said:
One thing I do remember when I used to use it regularly is that it was a MASSIVE battery hog and could reduce my iPhone 4 battery life by pretty much 1/2 if I left it running in the background...
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The battery on an iPhone works perfectly well if you simply turn off all background apps, GPS, WiFi, and BlueTooth, and adjust the screen brightness so it is very, very dim.

If you do that, the battery life is truly magical.
 
iMessage is about the whole Apple ecosystem. Where is WhatsApp for iPad and Mac?

That said, this needs to be reiterated b/c Google isn't going to throw away a huge user base:

nick_elt said:
of course they wont, google will want it on as many devices as possible, make it free and load it with ads.
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And maybe you need to spend less time on the web and more time helping solve starvation and poverty, GTFO:

xcodeaddict said:
The world needs to find something more worthwhile to spend ONE BILLION DOLLARS on (seriously? $1BN?! :O) like starvation and poverty, not piffling messaging apps for pampered westerners too scared of racking up a few dollars on messages.

Stupid.
Click to expand...
 
Many of you guys are missing the point. No, it doesn't worth it for the app itself. It's the user base and the content that matter! If google get a hold of WhatsApp, they will be parsing through all these text messages and get a sense of what the users have been up to and target ads based on that. That's kind of what they are doing with gmail already.
 
TallManNY said:
It isn't. Nice product, but the second you charge anything short of the most trivial amount of money, then users will flock to something else. But $1 per year rental seems fine. I bet a couple of million users will pay that instead of bothering to switch to something free. Google will read their texts and monetize them with placed ads as well.
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The word is that Whatsapp is pulling in close to $100 million in revenues per year, so it could be more than a couple of million users who are paying a buck a year.
 
xcodeaddict said:
The world needs to find something more worthwhile to spend ONE BILLION DOLLARS on (seriously? $1BN?! :O) like starvation and poverty, not piffling messaging apps for pampered westerners too scared of racking up a few dollars on messages.

Stupid.
Click to expand...

You post this on a forum devoted to luxury devices and gadgets that are not required to live. Follow your own advice... sell your iDevices, gadgets and PCs and donate the money to charity. If you do not own any of the said things why are you even here?
 
xcodeaddict said:
The world needs to find something more worthwhile to spend ONE BILLION DOLLARS on (seriously? $1BN?! :O) like starvation and poverty, not piffling messaging apps for pampered westerners too scared of racking up a few dollars on messages.

Stupid.
Click to expand...
I think a technology forum is the wrong website for you.
 
vc1212 said:
Three pages of comment and no one mention this:

Google is paying $1B for all YOUR PHONE NUMBERS!

Everyone uses real phone numbers to register WhatsApp, and Google is mining this information. Imagine sending ads directly to your phones. Scary.
Click to expand...

Phone directory, free of charge.
 
coolfactor said:
I disagree.

1) iMessage is not inferior to WhatsApp. They are both very good at what they do, they just are not equals in terms of features and implementation.

2) Apple will not suffer by any changes to WhatsApp. In fact, Apple's adoption of iMessage is going to increase regardless of what happens.

That said, I hope Google does *not* end up ingesting WhatsApp.
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I agree that they aren't identical services, it's just that WhatsApp is cross-platform and more useful day-to-day. It is effectively BBM for this decade, and I maintain that iMessage is still a bit confused about what it truly wants to be.

Zunjine said:
How will Apple "suffer hugely" if Google buys Whatsapp?
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iPhone users are of course becoming a minority (thanks to the uptake of Android, owned by Google). What makes messaging between these competing platforms painless? WhatsApp.

If Google buys WhatsApp and sweeps the rug from under Apple's feet, it will be yet another way in which Apple is viewed as "less compatible" - the number of WhatsApp users worldwide is astonishing, and people shouldn't underestimate how it has - for many - completely replaced SMS (with or without iMessage).
 
Perfect, keep us updated so I delete my account beforehand. There's no way I will trust my messages to google. BTW I only use this app with the people who live out of the country or some android-bearing friends.

I wish I could use imessages on a PC....And that it was available for Lion users.
 
martygras9 said:
Between Verizon offering unlimited text messages and Apple's iMessage, I'm just not seeing the need for this app on my phone.
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you can do so much more with Whatsapp than you can do with iMessage and ancient SMS.
If you really cannot see the advantage you maybe should give it a try (before google buys it xD)
 
0dev said:
What places are these? In the UK unlimited texting is pretty standard unless you literally use a standard pay as you go plan without any add-ons which hardly anyone does anymore and I'm pretty sure this is true for a lot of Europe too.

Although yes international messaging would indeed cost more and free internet messaging is more useful in that instance.
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All prepaid plans that I've ever seen were charging for each SMS. Most recent experiences for me were Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Hungary. You can always get a good deal on data, but the phone companies are still screwing people on SMS.
 
So I will have to skip ads after 5 seconds to reply to my friends? Please, WhatsApp, don't do it... :(
 
paul4339 said:
... if they remove the encryption.

.
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May be I'm missing something here... I don't know if they are doing encryption at the client level or the server level but either way, you still need to have a way to encrypt and decrypt the text messages. It's not like password which is stored as hash and has no need to know the actual value. The text messages need to be displayed back to the users. What makes you think Google can't decrypt that information?
 
Jayomat said:
wow why are US people so ignorant? I basically know "none" who doesn't use whatsapp (germany here..). It works really well most of the time, and not everyone has unlimited SMS (the majority!). Is that so hard to understand?
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I think you answered your own question. It's apparently not a big deal in the US, which explains why we're ignorant about the popularity of this app.
 
No mention of iOS any more

...from http://www.whatsapp.com

Will iPhone soon be gone?

How it works

WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia and yes, those phones can all message each other! Because WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing, there is no cost to message and stay in touch with your friends.

In addition to basic messaging WhatsApp users can create groups, send each other unlimited images, video and audio media messages.
 
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vc1212 said:
Three pages of comment and no one mention this:

Google is paying $1B for all YOUR PHONE NUMBERS!

Everyone uses real phone numbers to register WhatsApp, and Google is mining this information. Imagine sending ads directly to your phones. Scary.
Click to expand...

That would be illegal, in Europe at least.

----------
PlanetExp said:
Phone directory, free of charge.
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Well it wouldn't be free of charge would it. It'd be $1 billion.

ElTorro said:
All prepaid plans that I've ever seen were charging for each SMS. Most recent experiences for me were Oman, Qatar, Turkey and Hungary. You can always get a good deal on data, but the phone companies are still screwing people on SMS.
Click to expand...

Interesting, maybe that's why BBM is so popular in those countries.
 
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