It made more sense for MS though. They were basically kickstarting their internet services and had very few users.
Facebook can mine some more data from this I guess, but something rather marginal from what they already have.
Facebook can mine some more data from this I guess, but something rather marginal from what they already have.
The more Whatsapp satisifies my sharing needs, the less I use Facebook. And that is a competitive threat to Facebook. Instagram was similar - a light-weight social network built around photo-sharing.
I think Zuckerberg is a deeply strategic thinker trying to avoid the pitfalls of the "Innovator's Dilemma". Both Instagram and Whatsapp are classic examples of what is described in Innovator's Dilemma - light-weight products that can slowly eat into the market share of the incumbent, and ultimately displace it.
Edits : formatting.
But boy - 16 billion.
It's a $19B investment in trying to keep people on Facebook. $20B if paired with Instagram and $24B if they had acquired SnapChat.
The numbers sound crazy but they're trying to hold on to and grow a market cap that's currently $175B.
Zuck has some steel nuts but it's what got him to the $175B number in the first place.
I don't see any evidence to support that claim. It is a different strategy, but I don't see any indication that it is better. Flushing a few billion dollars down the toilet is a different strategy too, but that doesn't make it better.