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WhatsApp Now Has More Monthly Active Users Than Facebook App (venturebeat.com)
Facebook's $19 billion bet on WhatsApp in 2014, when the messaging app had 450 million active users, is beginning to pay off. From a report: In recent months, WhatsApp has surpassed Facebook's own marquee app in popularity, according to industry estimates. In September of last year, WhatsApp for the first time had more monthly active users worldwide on Android and iPhone platforms than the Facebook app, research firm App Annie said today in its annual State of Mobile report. App Annie did not share specific figures but told VentureBeat that WhatsApp has maintained its lead over the Facebook app since September.
It doesn't have to. Facebook paid $19 billion just so nobody else could have it.
I have noticed that if I message somebody I haven't messaged in a while using Whatsapp then a bunch of their posts will mysteriously appear on Facebook.
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It doesn't need more features than ICQ to be useful, it just has to be widely available, free, and easy to use.
Whatsapp grew because it did the same thing as SMS but for free (around here you paid per-SMS so this was a massive deal to a lot of people).
No sig today...
"messages are encrypted"
You don't know that. The source is closed and it all goes through their servers.
People are deleting the Facebook app in droves but not the Whatsapp app (sic).
And in fact WhatsApp is still rising in popularity, which was the entire point behind buying it (and Instagram) back then.
Zuckerberg has seen predecessors coming and going (thing MySpace's fall from popularity).
That eventually Facebook will wane out was absolutely totally predictable, it wasn't a question of "if" but "when".
So of course, Zuckerberg paid extremely close attention to emerging *future competitor* (instead of contemporary competitors), and bought them to be ready for the "Post-Facebook" era.
WhatsApp and Instagram were the under-dog apps rising in popularity (specially among younger generations) back then, the Zuckerberg bought them, and had the "Post-Facebook" era insured.
(And laughs anytime people are outraged and delete the Facebook App)
The problem is not Facebook (Zuckerberg is already prepared for that).
The problem is what comes after the "Post-facebook" era, what will come after Instagram and WhatsApp, when people will start deleting *that* one. The "Post-post-facebook" era, if you will.
Snapchat and musica.li/Tiktok seems to be the one rising in popularity in the youngest generation (kids don't want to be on the same platform as their parents, but the same as their friends. Network effect in social media doesn't seem to last over several generations).
The huge problem, the thorn in the foot of Zuckerberg's Machiavellian plan to perpetuity, is that the first one has actively resisted any attempt of buy out, and the second is doing its own merging and buyouts and becoming a sizable competitor in China (And who knows, might even end up being bought by Tencent, depending on how their current kerfuffle ends up).
So Zuckerberg sadly doesn't have any solid plan for after WhatsApp, the "Post-post-facebook" era.
But then, by that time he might be retiring with his billiion and letting Facebook try to survive on its own (see Bill Gates and Microsoft).
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
It lets me see my messages on the computer (unlike SMSes).
But it sucks and still rely on your phone to send and receive. Why?
It easily exports the conversations/messages from the app to your computer (unlike Facebook)
On the contrary, Facebook does it right. You can shut down your phone and still continue your conversation on your PC.
And best of all, it is based on phone numbers
This is one of the major reason for NOT using whatsapp. Phone numbers suck as an identifier. They are usually not free, belong to the carrier, and are location-specific.
Why should a chat application require a cell phone number is beyond me.
What's the difference with Messenger then?!?
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
You should probably send WhatsApp a tersely worded email expressing your outrage.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.