Re:The problem, really, is this thing called “disruption”
by liotier on Friday September 22, 2017 @11:59AM
(#15313319)
There is a demand elasticity threshold effect. When people traveled overseas, the consensus was that they were out of reach. Cheap Internet access broke that consensus for text & images. Whatsapp broke it for synchronous voice. People can now maintain close relationships internationally. It did not happen linearly with international voice prices decrease: it happened suddenly with the combination of the cost reaching zero with accepted usability.
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Re:The problem, really, is this thing called “disruption”
by Retric on Friday September 22, 2017 @12:09PM
(#15313398)
Whatsapp started in 2009, you could do free voice chat internationally well before that.
Arguably they 'won' because Skype was sold to Microsoft in 2009 creating a huge opening. But, it hardly changed the world even if it did save some people quite a bit of money.
PS: I suspect people will have the same conversation in 10 years about a company created around 2014 when Whatsapp was sold.