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But Whatsapp lost $140m and made only $10m in revenue in 2014.

It wasn't a sustainable business.

In the six months ending June 30, 2014, WhatsApp brought in $15.921 million in revenue, but had a net loss of $232.5 million. However, $206.5 million of that loss was for share-based compensation expenses and issuance of common stock below fair value. Its net cash used in operating expenses during the first half of 2014 was $13.5 million, which sounds much more reasonable.

Essentially, due to WhatsApp’s quickly rising valuation, it used share-based compensation to attract top talent. Eventually, the $22 billion acquisition by Facebook would largely make the “expenses” of issuing that stock moot. This wasn’t cash that WhatsApp was burning, but paper money it was doling out.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34566606

My 10 yo was curious why whatsapp is free. “Nice of them to do that”. I couldn’t explain it I suspect something something selling your data

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