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Google Close to Acquiring WhatsApp for $1 Billion?
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In all fairness I must say that Whatsapp has been a game changer in the way I interact with other people and groups of people.
It reduced my phone calls to practically zero because Whatsapp is so more convenient: one of the biggest advantages is that you don't directly interfere in someone's life or privacy (like by phoning), but leave it up to them when they get back to you. In The Netherlands it's very popular and is known to have taken big cuts out of the profits of the telco's (calls and sms).
It reduced my phone calls to practically zero because Whatsapp is so more convenient: one of the biggest advantages is that you don't directly interfere in someone's life or privacy (like by phoning), but leave it up to them when they get back to you. In The Netherlands it's very popular and is known to have taken big cuts out of the profits of the telco's (calls and sms).
Based on what? Selling ten or 20 million whatsapp downloads a year for $1? Where else would this revenue come from? I haven't used the app in a couple of years, but I don't remember ads and looking at it again I don't see any.
WhatApp is planning on leasing the phone yearly for $1 but that hasn't started, as far as I know. I think everyone is still in their first free year.
-_-
Why would iPhone be gone? To draw consumers to Android? B/c just as you are likely to gain people who can't go without WhatsApp on iPhone, you'll likely lose people who opt to go w/ iMessage and iPhone.
And just like Google Maps, Google will want it on iPhone, albeit w/ Google oversight. Think user base, adds, revenue.
Let's see you do it.
Go make one and come back here and tell us how big your user base is.
I don't get it...
I don't see the value or the potential here.
Google buying this for $1 Billion is like Facebook buying Instagram or Zynga getting Draw Something at the height of their popularity.
Apps. have a life span. They come and go. Someone can always come along and do something better.
It's just too much to pay.
I don't see the value or the potential here.
Google buying this for $1 Billion is like Facebook buying Instagram or Zynga getting Draw Something at the height of their popularity.
Apps. have a life span. They come and go. Someone can always come along and do something better.
It's just too much to pay.
Cross platform , huge international user base
If true , this would give Goggle a foot in this area, a big foot , this app is liked by many people around the world, I use it because my friends from around the world use it. I do love iMessages but is not the same at the international level, What's up does provide lots of options and is very efficient delivering txt , images , videos , etc plus tex groups. Goggle lost that battle way sometime ago with Goggle + , never took off so I can understand their need to catch some of this market , I think it is very good move , until the next Internet fad arrives .. who knows
If true , this would give Goggle a foot in this area, a big foot , this app is liked by many people around the world, I use it because my friends from around the world use it. I do love iMessages but is not the same at the international level, What's up does provide lots of options and is very efficient delivering txt , images , videos , etc plus tex groups. Goggle lost that battle way sometime ago with Goggle + , never took off so I can understand their need to catch some of this market , I think it is very good move , until the next Internet fad arrives .. who knows
iMessage - reliable? Not my experience.. I find that whatsapp works much more smoothly and reliably
While this would be cool I definitely don't see a lot of the people I personally know make another account (Apple ID) just to use iMessages.
It'd be nice to give people on other devices the option though.
i could be wrong, but believe it's done at the client (like iMessages)... so Whatsapp cannot interrogate your data.
>What makes you think Google can't decrypt that information?
That's my point, they won't need to, if they just re-release the client without the same type of encryption. Question is: will they?
.
Beneficial for you, maybe, but calling people is quickly becoming kind of rude to the rest of the world. It's the only method of long-distance communication that basically consists of "I'd like to speak with you RIGHT NOW so I'm going to make your device sound an especially long alarm until you physically answer your phone or tell it to stop buzzing at you".
The most annoying things about smartphones revolve around people calling me:
1) People calling to ask a simple question that could be answered quite easily via SMS at a more convenient time.
2) People leaving a voicemail that says nothing except "Hey, call me back" that I then have to listen to and delete. Gee, thanks for giving me an errand before demanding that I track you down so that I can find out what you want.
3) People calling all of my numbers one right after the other in an effort to get me to pick one of them up.
Ssshhhh.... don't let facts get in the way of his ill-informed ranting.
Er, since this hasn't actually happened there are no facts involved.
Yet.
not correct
my iMessage on my iPhone 5 does not require the recipient to have an iOS device.
It does require that the phone number used for friends, without an iOS device, includes a 1 and the area code in front of the number [i.e. 1 (555) 555-1212 ]
so you're right no need to use this product (especially now its become another google data-mining tool) and now you know you actually have a perfectly good iOS version that works with all devices regardless of whether they are iOS or not
and if you're referring to not being free to send iMessages to non iOS devices, which wasn't clear, the only thing I would say is most carrier plans now come with unlimited text messaging these days.
my iMessage on my iPhone 5 does not require the recipient to have an iOS device.
It does require that the phone number used for friends, without an iOS device, includes a 1 and the area code in front of the number [i.e. 1 (555) 555-1212 ]
so you're right no need to use this product (especially now its become another google data-mining tool) and now you know you actually have a perfectly good iOS version that works with all devices regardless of whether they are iOS or not
and if you're referring to not being free to send iMessages to non iOS devices, which wasn't clear, the only thing I would say is most carrier plans now come with unlimited text messaging these days.
And in the UK. Odd, that when I first encountered BBs they were only in the hands of bankers, and others who work where i do. (Hint... a bank!)
Then, it seemed that every kid/teenager had one just for BBM!
I'm the opposite: statistics measure the world. It should fit with anecdotal evidence.
I think Google going to integrated this to their Android phone (something like iMesssage). So non-Android users may have to purchase to use it.
So many tin foil hat wearers in this thread. Yeah Google is buying Whatsapp to get all your phone numbers so they can send ads directly to your phone. Get real people.
There isn't a more admirable company in the world currently than Google. They revolutionized Mapping (you can street view the Mount Everest now for crying out loud!). They will be the first with driver-less car technology. They do so many things amazingly well. They give stuff away for free all the time, probably more than any other company.
Get real people. There isn't a more admirable company in the world currently than Google. They revolutionized Mapping (you can street view the Mount Everest now for crying out loud!). They will be the first with driver-less car technology. They do so many things amazingly well. They give stuff away for free all the time, probably more than any other company.
Yep. BlackBerries don't seem to be too popular with that crowd now though, they've all got cheap old iPhones (3G, 3GS, or 4 usually) or cheap Androids like the Wave Y.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a waste because Google probably already has data for 90% of these users? These aren't magic, non-Android (or other Google product) users, many of them are the same.
This is $.15 per person on the planet. Crazy.
Hopefully someone at Google is thinking this.
This is $.15 per person on the planet. Crazy.
Hopefully someone at Google is thinking this.
i use a google voce # for whatsApp Is the best app better and more cool that imessage. hope google make this App to work out of box to other divice like ipad no just smartphones.
Yes it does. The Messages app on iOS supports iMessage and SMS/MMS. Any messages you send to someone without an iOS device (or mac with iMessage) is sent via SMS/MMS and not iMessage.
There is no "iMessage" app as it is the transport mechanism.
Michael
Read again what I wrote. I didn't mean delivery reliability, though frankly haven't had one problem with iMessage delivery.
A lot of people in this thread are missing the point.
Google is not buying WhatsApp because it's a good service or because they don't already have enough users, they are buying it to further the development of their own products. They will use the talent at WhatsApp and the technology they've built to help develop Babble or whatever it'll be called. That's how it always works with these kind of acquisitions.
Google is not buying WhatsApp because it's a good service or because they don't already have enough users, they are buying it to further the development of their own products. They will use the talent at WhatsApp and the technology they've built to help develop Babble or whatever it'll be called. That's how it always works with these kind of acquisitions.