Viber is a battery killer btw. Whatsapp not so much

Tesla is worth $24B – they only make 30000 cars per year

….currently. I suspect a lot of that ‘value’ is in patents they hold for that elastic trickery they use for the cars, to be sold on when everyone else wants to make them too/when they become more mainstream and ramp up production.

I do wonder how some of these astronomical figures are arrived upon though.

CaptainFlashheart – Member

Which is why you can just use email, surely?

The difference is you don’t need to know their email address, or add them like on facebook; simply having their number in your phone book allows you to message them.

simply having their number in your phone book allows you to message them.

How much harder is it to have someone’s email address? Or their Skype address?

Have you used WhatsApp CFH?

I was very cynical before using it, with the same why not just email argument.

But it’s just so damn simple even compared to email. Group chat is a piece of piss, images get hugely reduced in size so you barely use any data to send pics. It’s actually really very good.

Have you used WhatsApp CFH?

I think the answer to that is almost certainly no.

I send loads of photos of my kids to wife and family using WhatsApp. I have never done this on email. The UI is excellent, so simple to use. The cost is a bargain.

How much harder is it to have someone’s email address? Or their Skype address?

It’s still extra information needed. More people will have someones mobile number, than email/skype.

I’ve not used it for months since I changed to an iPhone – iMessage does what I need it to do, without the need for a separate app.

iMessage does what I need it to do, without the need for a separate app.

everyone you want to text have an iphone?

Beauty of WhatsApp is it’s cross platform, even stretching to some old Nokia S60 and even some S40 devices.

Here’s Wired’s take on it, seems a sensible move for them but still a huge amount of money

I installed What’s App at the request of a friend who used it. He’s the only one I use it for. I get a bit irritated and bewildered by the many many ways of communicating now: email, SMS, What’s App, Skype, Facebook messaging, iMessage, Twitter etc…

SMS still has a place for me. There are plenty of locations near where I live where all these internet messaging services are rendered useless by a lack of any mobile internet.

I get a bit irritated and bewildered by the many many ways of communicating now

xkcd has that covered… https://xkcd.com/1254/

Just use Apple FaceTime video or audio.

I use WhatsApp, I may have even paid for it. $0.99 NZD for free, simple international sms/picture message/group messages? Bargain.

Cross-platform = win.

iPhone only applications can **** right off thanks. I’m not willing to exclude my mum/sister/mates or whoever because they don’t have the right phone. Facetime can take a hike until I can install it on an android phone for my mum. etc. etc.

I was chatting to one of our apprentices about this – he’s 17. His generation are walking away from Facebook, they think it’s old hat. But they love WhatsApp, and we came to the conclusion that’s why Facebook bought them…

Problem is, you can’t just ‘buy’ customers like that. As soon as WhatsApp becomes passe, all that cash will have been wasted and they’ll have to buy whatever new thing is the current fave, until that also becomes old hat.

Apps are really easy create and launch so their lifecycles are bound to be much quicker than other products or services – much easier for a new player to take all your customers.

This smacks of desperation to me…

I don’t really get WhatsApp – doesn’t everybody get unlimited texts these days anyway?

In the UK maybe, but other countries differ.

tbh Valuations are usually based on the situation in the US, so if they are paying for SMS and therefore happy to pay a couple of dollars a week/month/year – then it’s ‘worth’ X.

The Registers take on it was $45 for each users phone contacts which the App accesses automatically. You get some control of this ‘feature’ with Facebook and its privacy settings hence the grab for WhatsApp users.

Nitrozac and Snaggy have it.

Snapchat is where it’s at for da yoof.

Never been charged anything for using what’s app and I had it since day 1….!?!?!?!? Never even had a message asking me to pay!?

I’ve been using whatsap for a few years (so I get it free) its very useful for international messages. However, $16bn is just staggering and it’s hard to justify as anything other than a defensive move to prevent others getting a lead position innthe messaging market. I suppose the other fact is that people change their phone number rarely and so this is a way of locking onto a user. It’s interesting facebook paid mainly in stock (says to me they don’t have that much cash). I imagine fb will now start scanning messages for keywords to sell advertising.

Never been charged anything for using what’s app and I had it since day 1….!?!?!?!? Never even had a message asking me to pay!?

The versions become defunct after a while and you need to upgrade.

CFH: chat is different to email. If I have a Whatsapp group with four people (riding buddies?)’ each of who sends 4 messages in a conversation, I’d have to read 16 separate emails…or glance at one chat thread with sixteen bubbles. I also can’t tell when email has been read and sending photos or emails requires opening an attachment in a separate thread.

Unlimited text messages are great…domestically, but I pay for international SMSes. Also, if I’m overseas and send an SMS, I get charged roaming fees…but if I send a whatsapp message thru wifi, it’s free. And SMS doesn’t allow me to have a group chat.

I’ve used whatsapp and never paid for it, tho. Who has?

I’ll shift if it’s too integrated with Facebook.

Whatsapp is a fantastic communication app and I’m stoked those guys got bought out and made a bunch of cash off of it. It’s my most used app.

I have many groups with 4 – 8 – some in the teens full of people, it great being able to send an image into the group and everyone having it pushed to their device instantly. Or a video or voice note or whatever. Great app. Well worth the £0.99 for the year.

I just hope FB don’t **** it up. If they do, they’re always alternatives. The only reason Whatsapp is any good (or any social web/app) is because people use it. Someone posted here saying Viber is the better app – no it’s not because no one uses it! The infrastructure may be there but If no one uses it….

Viber is good because of the call function. But you need a fast phone to run it. It crashes my rooted HTC desire most times I try to start it. Whatsapp just works and doesn’t have a slow menu system.

If one of the phone OS people could come up with a native messages app that agreegated all of these different IM types messages in one app so that I was hidden from the complexity of it all then they would have my money in an instant.

A bit like with email where my iPhone has a single inbox but I have multiple email accounts.

Or where iMessage and SMS work in tandem so you don’t have to worry about it.

That would be awesome just sensible.

Recently paid my 89cents having had it for over a year. We don’t get the same mobile deals here as you lot in the UK, so not much in the line of free SMS, although things are changing. So 5 messages not sent by SMS and it’s paid for itself.

I work with teenagers and the ones using FB are a minority. Almost none have email addresses, many use twitter and almost all have either Whatsapp, Line, Kakao (or all if them).

I think whatsapp is ace. I use it loads for sending pics of our kiddies to relatives. It’s less faff than an email IMHO.

Almost none have email addresses

Wow, really? Kinell. How do they register for stuff online that requires an email address tho? Or I guess you mean they have email but never use it.