Oh Whatsapp, you were worth every penny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeI1B_6F9U8
Now that people are starting to digest the news that Facebook bought Whatsapp for 19 billion dollars, it’s time for reflection. I believe that Whatsapp is one of the best acquisitions Facebook ever made—indeed, one of the best any tech giant could have made. Ready for some controversial claims?
Whatsapp has the best engineering team in the world. They built their product with a rather unknown language (but it was the most adequate), Erlang:
“With Erlang you could build a messaging app with many connected users and not worry about how they communicate,” says Chad DePue, CTO of Whisper, an app for anonymous posts that has opted to use the language. Instead, he says, “You can worry about creating a great app.”
Not convinced? They are about 30 engineers and maintain a service used by more than 425 million people. Take a look at this Quora question: How strong is the engineering team at Whatsapp?
While Facebook was the king of the Web, Whatsapp is really close to being the king of mobile. It can be seen as the closest thing to a phone OS in itself (cross-platform & global service).
As per MG Siegler:
Both understand that the Facebook/WhatsApp deal is simply the strongest signal yet that we’ve fully entered a new age in the world of computing where mobile is now the kingdom. And the $19 billion price tag simply shows that there isn’t yet a king.
Facebook was a king in the last kingdom, the Web. And while they seem to be transitioning fairly well over to this new kingdom (after stumbling badly out of the gate), the $19 billion figure shows that they’re well aware that not only are they not anointed yet, they’re just as likely to be overthrown.
This kingdom is truly different. Many of the dynamics that led to Facebook’s rise as social engulfed the Web are no longer at play. This is why Facebook is transitioning from a hub of features behind a great wall to an unbundled island of apps. But this has to be terrifying for them because the glue that once held things together so tightly, the social graph, is starting to wear off. With no more wall and no more glue…
Whatsapp probably has the biggest number of daily active users in the world. Bigger than Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. 72% of their users return daily.
How much would you pay for the best engineering team in the world and the most actively used mobile service in the world? Zuckerberg wants to be sure that Facebook will still exist in 10 years, buying Whatsapp and adding its CEO to the Facebook board is a smart move.
In less than two years, Whatsapp will have at least 1 billion users, let’s wait and see.
Oh Whatsapp, you were worth every penny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeI1B_6F9U8
Now that people are starting to digest the news that Facebook bought Whatsapp for 19 billion dollars, it’s time for reflection. I believe that Whatsapp is one of the best acquisitions Facebook ever made—indeed, one of the best any tech giant could have made. Ready for some controversial claims?
Whatsapp has the best engineering team in the world. They built their product with a rather unknown language (but it was the most adequate), Erlang:
“With Erlang you could build a messaging app with many connected users and not worry about how they communicate,” says Chad DePue, CTO of Whisper, an app for anonymous posts that has opted to use the language. Instead, he says, “You can worry about creating a great app.”
Not convinced? They are about 30 engineers and maintain a service used by more than 425 million people. Take a look at this Quora question: How strong is the engineering team at Whatsapp?
While Facebook was the king of the Web, Whatsapp is really close to being the king of mobile. It can be seen as the closest thing to a phone OS in itself (cross-platform & global service).
As per MG Siegler:
Both understand that the Facebook/WhatsApp deal is simply the strongest signal yet that we’ve fully entered a new age in the world of computing where mobile is now the kingdom. And the $19 billion price tag simply shows that there isn’t yet a king.
Facebook was a king in the last kingdom, the Web. And while they seem to be transitioning fairly well over to this new kingdom (after stumbling badly out of the gate), the $19 billion figure shows that they’re well aware that not only are they not anointed yet, they’re just as likely to be overthrown.
This kingdom is truly different. Many of the dynamics that led to Facebook’s rise as social engulfed the Web are no longer at play. This is why Facebook is transitioning from a hub of features behind a great wall to an unbundled island of apps. But this has to be terrifying for them because the glue that once held things together so tightly, the social graph, is starting to wear off. With no more wall and no more glue…
Whatsapp probably has the biggest number of daily active users in the world. Bigger than Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. 72% of their users return daily.
How much would you pay for the best engineering team in the world and the most actively used mobile service in the world? Zuckerberg wants to be sure that Facebook will still exist in 10 years, buying Whatsapp and adding its CEO to the Facebook board is a smart move.
In less than two years, Whatsapp will have at least 1 billion users, let’s wait and see.
Five Hard Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Starting Up
Five Hard Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Starting Up
Ryan Hoover for some pragmatic, necessary questions you need to ask yourself before starting up. The most important one, for me, is passion. Would like to do what you’re doing for the next five years?
Five Hard Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Starting Up
Ryan Hoover for some pragmatic, necessary questions you need to ask yourself before starting up. The most important one, for me, is passion. Would like to do what you’re doing for the next five years?
The Casually Interested Person's Guide To Investing In Bitcoin
The Casually Interested Person’s Guide To Investing In Bitcoin
How to make money with Bitcoin, how to get into mining and some other interesting and informative stuff about Bitcoin.
The Casually Interested Person’s Guide To Investing In Bitcoin
How to make money with Bitcoin, how to get into mining and some other interesting and informative stuff about Bitcoin.
Reporter is a new application for understanding the things you care about. With a few randomly timed surveys each day, Reporter can illuminate aspects of your life that might be otherwise unmeasurabl
I’ve been using it for a few weeks and the result is amazing (the visualization part, especially). It’s not connected to the Internet so no worries about privacy.
Reporter is a new application for understanding the things you care about. With a few randomly timed surveys each day, Reporter can illuminate aspects of your life that might be otherwise unmeasurabl
Take perfect photos every time. According to CJ Chilvers, technique and gear doesn’t matter. All good photographs tell a story, with a compelling subject, for you.
Take perfect photos every time. According to CJ Chilvers, technique and gear doesn’t matter. All good photographs tell a story, with a compelling subject, for you.
Canopy: cool products available on Amazon
Canopy: cool products available on Amazon
Today I discovered Canopy thanks to Product Hunt. I wrote about product hunt here.
Canopy: cool products available on Amazon
Today I discovered Canopy thanks to Product Hunt. I wrote about product hunt here.
How are Chicken McNuggets made? Someone asked whether there was pink goop in nuggets. The answer is nope.
How are Chicken McNuggets made? Someone asked whether there was pink goop in nuggets. The answer is nope.
True facts that sound false
The United States in World War 2 created a bomb that used bats. The bats would be carrying small incendiary charges and would be released from the bomb in mid air, causing them to fly and scatter to different buildings in the area. The charges would then detonate and set all the buildings on fire. It was tested and proven to be very effective.
Funny list on Reddit, here taken from Kottke.
True facts that sound false
The United States in World War 2 created a bomb that used bats. The bats would be carrying small incendiary charges and would be released from the bomb in mid air, causing them to fly and scatter to different buildings in the area. The charges would then detonate and set all the buildings on fire. It was tested and proven to be very effective.
Funny list on Reddit, here taken from Kottke.
How The Guardian Uses "Attention Analytics" To Track Rising Stories
How The Guardian Uses “Attention Analytics” To Track Rising Stories
That real-time feedback came from the Guardian’s in-house “attention data” tool Ophan. It tracks all of the Guardian’s traffic and makes it available to 400 journalists, editors, and developers with a time-lag of less than five seconds. Users can see what’s being read most on the Guardian’s various home pages. The data can be filtered by country, time period, section, mobile app and devices, browsers, referral sources, and more.
Clever.
How The Guardian Uses “Attention Analytics” To Track Rising Stories
That real-time feedback came from the Guardian’s in-house “attention data” tool Ophan. It tracks all of the Guardian’s traffic and makes it available to 400 journalists, editors, and developers with a time-lag of less than five seconds. Users can see what’s being read most on the Guardian’s various home pages. The data can be filtered by country, time period, section, mobile app and devices, browsers, referral sources, and more.
Clever.