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Comment by joslin01 | Hacker News Reader

I would argue that was more of an expensive land-grab. Whatsapp was/is not an existential threat to Facebook.

If a messenger could overcome FB, snapchat might actually have a chance, but the key value proposition that FB offers is that it's your online persona. You have pictures up from all the years you been around, you have your friends' profiles to go check out at will, you can start a group, or make an event and know all your friends are already on Facebook to see it.

So why buy? Messengers have the highest retention rate. You can see them expanding upon it by integrating FB profile + allowing you to install "apps" or "plugins" that do X/Y/Z. There is a Chinese company, WeChat, that has made billions on this model. I'm sure FB would like to as well, but with it integrated with FB login etc..

Downvoters: Genuinely curious how I'm wrong if you feel like throwing in your 2 cents.

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I don't know, WhatsApp actually has mostly replaced Fb in my friends and family circle at least. I think it was a smart and timely acquisition (whether overpriced, I cannot say.)

> You have pictures up from all the years you been around,

In practice, people care very little about this - they want the world to know they were in the Taj Mahal last Sunday or their baby started walking yesterday, but older pictures are generally forgotten, and sometimes even a nuisance for various reasons.

> you have your friends' profiles to go check out at will,

and yet almost never do

> you can start a group,

as you can on WhatsApp

> or make an event and know all your friends are already on Facebook to see it.

This is one use case that is indeed better on Fb, though just posting and gathering replies on WhatsApp seems to suffice in 80% of cases.

(Btw, I'm not among the downvoters.)

You make solid points, but just as people's attics become cluttered with crap that they never use but are reluctant to throw out, I think you could argue users innately feel the same with their personal photos / friends / posts on FB.

I was confused about downvotes because I was at -2 for awhile (maybe I offended snapchat employees ;), but I appreciate you rebutting me. I do believe if there was to be a huge contender to Facebook, it would need a messaging component to grow out of. However, I still do not believe FB made the purchase primarily out of fear of competitive threat. I think FB Integration in a tencent model can make them more money than FB ads (while driving more targeted FB ads).

Why couldn't WhatsApp just (yes, the tech is hard, but getting massive amounts of subscribers is way harder) build a social network for all it's subscribers? Migrate photos, don't abuse your users like Facebook....I think it was a legit threat.

I think you mean tencent/ wechat

Thanks, yes I did (edited)

WhatsApp is huge in India. Most of the friend use it more often then facebook. If there is any conversations going on then its on whatsapp.

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