Maybe I am a dinosaur but I am going back to BBM albeit on my Samsung S4.
I loved whatsapp. Use it a lot to stay in touch with family etc.
Now looks like I will have to delete it. Worst news I heard this morning and started me off in a bad mood.
So here's my take on things (and its from a purely personal standpoint).
So it all of a sudden seems there are a lot of people saying they never use WhatsApp, strange, but well I guess that is fine. Also all of sudden a bunch of people are coming out saying they never use Facebook, again strange, but well I guess that's fine.
Personally I use both and the majority of the people I know use both. That is amongst myself and the people I know. Whether we are wrong or right to do so, well I guess that's our business.
Facebook claim that WhatsApp will remain a separate company. At the start, I reckon that will be the case. Medium to long term, I doubt that will be the case, would not at all be surprised if we see a bit of integration between the two. The main reason I like WhatsApp is because its clean. No freaking stickers, games, etc. Its just messaging and nothing more than that. Facebook Messenger is also pretty decent, so if these two were to integrate more I wouldn't mind actually as I use both.
I am actually quite surprised WhatsApp sold out. They had said previously they were not interested in being bought out and were happy being independent, but I guess everyone has a price and the founders have done very well out of it.
I agree with you regarding whatsapp. It is the most used app on my phone and I also like it for not having any crap like you mentioned. Facebook is the opposite. Their app was good until all the crap started rolling in. It would be good if facebook had a pay for app or pro version where you can avoid all the ads and suggested groups, friends, jellybean crush thing etc but no, not part of their model.
Looks like its back to viber then.
But they already monetise it though, through subscriptions.Original Post Deleted
However, Facebook's model is monetisation through advertising. I think they did the same with Instagram.
Will be very interesting to see the SEC filings on how much money WhatsApp actually makes. When the filings for the Viber purchase got made public, it was noted that Viber was making a loss even though it has a "sticker" market and sells airtime for calls to phones.
Hold yer horses!
1. Approval for the purchase has not been given (yet)
2. Facebook acquired Instagram and have not messed that up (yet)
Quick Summary
1. Facebook - evil and horrible Android apps (I haven't tried Paper on iOS)
2. wechat - I'd rather the USA NSA scan my messages than the China NSA equivalent, of course, I'd rather neither but I'm not John Lennon
3. LINE - maybe?
4. Whatsapp - awesome, runs on everything except Toast, practically free
I'm not going to be uninstalling Whatsapp for a while, fingers crossed it stays great.
Although, I must say it's a bit scary that Facebook will soon have the phone numbers and address books of _a lot_ of people and more than 50 billion whatsapp messages, per day.