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Comment by HWR_14 | Hacker News Reader

> Hell how to get WhatsApp profitable seems to befuddle Facebook.

Facebook, the company that never charges for anything and makes money off data and ads? You are thinking you never paid for WhatsApp after using it for a decade?

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I am. The only remotely valuable data WhatsApp makes available to Facebook is contact lists, and frankly they already have all that data.

WhatsApp is definitely losing them money, but it's obviously more than worth a small loss to have control over the messaging system that most of the world uses. Facebook doesn't want Google or whoever to get a popular social app and leverage that to move into spaces that Facebook actually makes money.

So I guess in a sense you could way we're indirectly paying for it via Facebook ads (if you actually use Facebook).

Well, they have "business WhatsApp" and now the infrastructure is built out and the apps are mature, I really wonder how much investment it actually takes. WhatsApp was a famously lean operation. Maybe 50 people at the time it was acquired, and the apps have hardly changed in years. I bet it can or does run with a skeleton crew. The competition is hardly intense.

I assume Facebook derives a lot of value from traffic analysis. Knowing who you talk to, when and for how long has value.

Unless you think that FB won't start serving you mortgage ads once they see you calling realtors

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