Facebook to buy Whatsapp for $16-billion

[Azure]

Again, while you might disagree with the valuation of Whatsapp, you can't disagree with the potential it has to make a LOT of money. Nevermind their growth.

IT IS hard to make money peddling social media anywhere. During their first few years in business, Facebook and Twitter lost pots of money. Yet somehow Tencent, an innovative Chinese firm that released the WeChat app in 2011, seems to have cracked the code. Alicia Yap of Barclays, an investment bank, forecasts that WeChat will earn some 6.8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) this year and 9.6 billion yuan next year. The reasons for optimism include clever integration of the app with other money-making services and spectacular growth in users at home and, unusually for a Chinese app, abroad.

WeChat started off as a messaging service, similar to America’s WhatsApp, but it has grown rapidly into much more. In recent months, Tencent has integrated online-payment functions into it. Customers can do their banking through it and a wealth-management service has just been launched. It is also promoting e-commerce: during a recent sale held exclusively on WeChat, Xiaomi, China’s hottest smartphone-maker, is said to have sold 150,000 of its latest model in under ten minutes.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/...-little-earner

Like I have said many times, lots of different ways to monetize the platform.

[Azure]

http://www.businessinsider.com/whats...million-2015-1

Another 100 million more active users in 4 months. Up to 700 million now. Pretty insane growth.

[Bill Bumface]

I still find the iOS version of WhatsApp a steaming pile of crap. The only reason I have it is it seems to have the user base and I don't like spending $1 per SMS to talk to my android friends when on vacation.

[Azure]

Figured this would happen eventually. Surprised Whatsapp isn't working to do something like this with the carriers in their big Asia/Europe regions. $20/year for a SIM card that gives you unlimited Whatsapp usage. Combine that with their coming voice calling feature that is coming out as we speak, and it could be a home run.

Half the Whatsapp users in the world are in Europe/Asia regions where SMS plans are ridiculous. If 350 million people paid $20/year for a Whatsapp only plan, that would generate $7 billion in revenue per year. Split the $20 with the carriers and even Whatsapp could walk away with even 20%, that is already over a billion dollars per year in revenue. Suddenly the $19 billion dollar purchase price doesn't sound so bad.

Gotta think outside the box.

WhatsApp is now capturing a good deal of the world’s texting traffic, so an Italian company figured it was time to create a WhatsApp data plan for the world. The people behind Italy’s Zeromobile have launched a new venture called WhatSim that sells a €10 ($11.60) SIM card that lets you chat on WhatsApp for free in 150 countries for a year.

When it comes to text messaging alternatives, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is already a bargain. It’s a free download, and after the first year you pay only 99 cents a year. That, however, does not include the cost of mobile data, which can be exceptional high if you’re trotting the world outside of your home network. So WhatSim has created plan that levels the playing field across the globe. You buy the SIM card for €10 and aren’t charged any data fees as long as you use WhatsApp’s basic text messaging features. After a year, you can continue the service for another €10.

If you want to use more advanced features like sending pictures or video, recording voice messages or sharing your location or contacts, then you have to pay more. You buy “recharges” that give you different allotments of pictures or videos — the charges vary based on what country you’re in — based on a credit system.

https://gigaom.com/2015/01/21/whatsi...-on-the-cheap/

[Azure]

Looks like someone has already done it.

http://www.whatsim.com/en/whatsim