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WhatsApp introduces ads in its app

(www.nytimes.com)
713 points greenburger | 1 comments | 16 Jun 25 13:38 UTC | HN request time: 0.45s | source
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robertlagrant ◴[16 Jun 25 14:20 UTC] No.44289775[source]▶
> When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014, the messaging app had a clear focus. No ads, no games and no gimmicks.

This sort of analysis is very surface-level I think. My impression is WhatsApp offered that by running on VC money and had no plan to run an actual business. That's not a question of focus. It's an unsustainable, please monetise me later land grab.

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rchaud ◴[16 Jun 25 22:40 UTC] No.44294042[source]▶
Have you considered that you may be making the surface-level analysis? I paid $3 for Whatsapp in 2010 on the Blackberry app store. They had a staff of ~20 people handling messages across almost 200 countries.It became the defacto global messaging app because it was available on every single platform, not just the Apple/Google duopoly VCs cared about.
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1. lou1306 ◴[17 Jun 25 13:00 UTC] No.44298628[source]▶
They also ran on Symbian and Windows Phone. I know because I used both ports.