Facebook to buy WhatsApp For $16 Billion

Skull said:
I've used whatsapp for years and never paid the 99p, nor has anyone else I know. It's the winrar of messaging.

Anyway, if facebook gets access to the data of 400+ million people's conversations and can link many of those to Facebook accounts they'll make lots of money from advertising. Whether that's worth $16bn in cash and $3bn in shares I suppose is a question that facebook's bean counters and IBs have answered "yes" to.
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but look at how much viber is being sold for and that has 300million users it's not even 1bn $ lol

whatsapp only has 150million more users but is selling for a ridiculous sum of money in comparison
 
Who actually uses this app? If you want to post pictures use instagram? I'm getting old, thick, or both.
 
we use it with one of the companies we subcontract for. its actually a pretty good tool in my eyes, That said I can see it going onto a subscription model or similar.

450 million users at £1 a month will soon get their investment back
 
not everyone is paying though and there aree free alternatives like viber that sold/is being sold for a fraction of the cost.

300million users vs 450 million
 
I don't get why this app is needed. If I want to send an image, I email it. If I want voip, I use the excellent Android Skype app. What does WhatsApp do?
 
You do get the same features in iOS - wifi based messgaing including attachments (movies and pics) therefore not consuming any data allowance.

The beauty of Whatsapp it's platform independent so it's not only comms between iphone and iphone but any supported mobile device.

I'm not a Facebooker so I'm concerned that they'll integrate it with FB. Time to move onto viber
 
Efour said:
7 other things they could have bought

3 aircraft carriers :P lol
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not many countries have them either

far rarer than VOIP apps
 
Lets correct a few things first of all: There are no current plans to change WhatsApp, merge it with Facebook Messenger, add adverts etc. Much like when Facebook bought Instagram this didn’t change how that app functioned. This is quoted in several of the better news reports on the story and is on WhatsApp’s own blog.

WhatsApp is an ‘instant messenger app’ or SMS (Texting) replacement. Yes you can send a text through normal means but as mentioned that often requires a phone signal and can be costly to do abroad. There are no additional charges for this other than data, so it is free if you’re on Wifi etc.
It is also very useful for groups and group conversations where texts are not, not only is it cross platform so your Windows, Android, iOS, Blackberry friends can all chat together but it also allows you to mute a conversation, add a new person, remove a person etc. nothing that can be done on SMS.
People have mentioned sharing media which it is also very good for, much quicker than by SMS and lets you share more than just pictures, you also get a delivery verification, you can setup unique tones etc.

The chart of its growth where it surpasses Facebook’s user base is phenomenal considering it isn’t even that popular in America yet according to the reports. Clearly Facebook sees some potential in the investment or just want to get hold of the fastest growing communication tool going.
 
bsoltan said:
The chart of its growth where it surpasses Facebook’s user base is phenomenal considering it isn’t even that popular in America yet according to the reports. Clearly Facebook sees some potential in the investment or just want to get hold of the fastest growing communication tool going.
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probably because Viber or one of the other alternatives is popular in America instead though

oh found something interesting on google from last year
comparison, WeChat may have 400 million registered users but only around 50 million of them are outside of China.
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(315mil accounts) A substantial number of Viber users, 31.2%, are in Asia, while 24% of its users are in Western Europe. Middle East accounts for 12.3% of its user base and South America comprises 9.8%. Viber app currently receives 550,000 signs ups everyday.
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whatsapp 450mil users vs viber 315mil
whatsapp being sold for 16billion vs viber being sold by march for less than 1 billion.
whatsapp seems to be big in china but not very widely used elsewhere in the world vs viber which seems to have a good spread

I know which I would have bought
 
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