WhatsApp's chief business officer Neeraj Arora is leaving the company
telegraph.co.uk
telegraph.co.uk
When Facebook bought it, the business model was to turn its users into the product.
So what I'm trying to say is: I've seen your strategy working, so it's a good one that doesn't require you to make too many personal sacrifices.
But not on iOS, they had to pay.
People did pay. Its just that the charging was somewhat selective. Obviously you and your friends weren't in the group that was selected.
Originally, it was a paid app ($1) on the iPhone. Eventually, that was dropped in favor of using in-app billing to actually charge the $1/year on Android... but this was only enforced in a few selected countries at first. Once the Facebook acquisition happened, this effort was dropped. If it hadn't happened, then charging users would have expanded gradually over time.
I can tell you with confidence that very few users in eastern Europe would pay even an euro for an app that used to be free and has free alternatives.
In fact my friends and I discussed that exact particular scenario when we once got a notification from WhatsApp about future payments.
I mean, let's be honest, it's just a chat application. It is almost trivial to build and maintain. And since it uses your phone number, there is no friction to switch to another app--if they decided to charge for it, Telegram would eat it alive in months.
I'm interested to know what you've made or helped to make that is more complex and more difficult to maintain than whatsapp.
If someone said: "We're buying the company you work for, and you're going to get $$$$$ out of the deal. You get some of it up-front, and the rest dolled out over the next four years." Well, now the four years are up. Do you stay and continue to simply work for $, or do you take a break and find something new to do with your life?