Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App

Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by dsl on Thursday February 20, 2014 @02:27AM (#7269422)

As of today: Smartphones outsold feature phones for this first time ever in India. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/samsung-smartphones-outse...

From my personal experiences, international countries that have smartphone adoption use Viber, and the feature phone countries use WhatsApp.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by terhechte on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:04AM (#7269560)

WhatsApp is also really strong here in Germany and other parts of Europe. More of my friends are on WhatsApp than Facebook (only very few more though).

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by Kurtz79 on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:39AM (#7270066)

In Spain and Italy "sending a Whatsapp" is almost as idiomatic as "Googling something".

It has basically replaced texting. Even my mom use it, which for me it's the definition of "wildly popular".

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by danieldk on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:36AM (#7269662)

Also in the Netherlands. E.g. in June 2013, 75% of the smartphone users used WhatsApp daily. Moreover, more than three quarter of the Dutch citizens has a smartphone.

So, WhatsApp is definitely used in high-profit markets as well.

Source: http://www.nu.nl/tech/3506473/whatsapp-heeft-kwart-miljard-a...

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by sschueller on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:47AM (#7269693)

These numbers are going to drop significantly now. Everyone I talk to is unhappy about the acquisition and will switch to something else like telegram.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by ville on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:02AM (#7269965)

I'd say more than 99.9% of WhatsApp users haven't heard of Telegram.

WhatsApp users are mostly not early adopters like you and your friends. They are ordinary people, because WhatsApp is is a simple communication tool targeted to everyone. And that's why they keep doubling their user base.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by krisgenre on Thursday February 20, 2014 @04:49AM (#7269915)

Unless Facebook actually puts their logo on WhatsApp, hardly anyone would notice. The tech community is minuscule compared to the large number of non-tech people using WhatsApp.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by Jare on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:55AM (#7270117)

The uproar in Spain about WhatsApp switching to $1 per year was huge, noisy and... emphemeral. Line got a lot of new signups for a few weeks, but the only person I know that still considers using Line today didn't even have WhatsApp back then (but, like everyone else, does have it now).

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by enewcomer on Thursday February 20, 2014 @04:46AM (#7269899)

Unless everybody switches, few will switch. Network effects also create some pretty powerful stickiness.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by pjmlp on Thursday February 20, 2014 @04:15AM (#7269789)

I live in Germany and must be a very poor soul as I only know one person with WhatsApp and dozens with Viber.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by eru on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:26AM (#7270030)

My (German) mom just asked about WhatsApp. So it must be mainstream.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by pjmlp on Thursday February 20, 2014 @06:56AM (#7270306)

Most likely because it is showing on the news everywhere?

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by eru on Thursday February 20, 2014 @08:11PM (#7274825)

Could be. I haven't been in Germany for 4 years now.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by ghshephard on Thursday February 20, 2014 @02:32AM (#7269438)

Singapore is a Smartphone country, but Whatsapp is pretty dominant there. (I didn't run into anyone who didn't use it as their primary messaging platform)

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by thaumasiotes on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:41AM (#7269677)

In China, it seems to be Wechat. I had never heard of WhatsApp.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by rabino on Thursday February 20, 2014 @02:47AM (#7269487)

Same in Argentina

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by yen223 on Thursday February 20, 2014 @04:39AM (#7269882)

Same up here in Malaysia. In fact, it's starting to look like the only places that isn't dominated by WhatsApp are America and China.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by dba7dba on Thursday February 20, 2014 @12:45PM (#7272308)

You forgot china/Skorea/Japan, all big markets.

WeChat - china

S Korea - kakaotalk 90% market share

LINE - Japan 50 million users with 300 million worldwide

And all three have significant revenue in double digit US millions a year, unlike WhatsApp which has no real revenue...

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by skinnymuch on Thursday February 20, 2014 @01:24PM (#7272601)

Whatsapp has revenue in the double digit US millions per year. Their profit might even be in that range.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by dba7dba on Thursday February 20, 2014 @12:26PM (#7272133)

KakaoTalk is big in S Korea. LINE is big in Japan. LINE has 300 million users, with 50 million in Japan.

As far as I know, both are very profitable through sales of digital goods like stickers etc.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by phn on Thursday February 20, 2014 @02:29AM (#7269427)

Remember that it's not only the J2ME actives that matter. The fact that you have access to all your friends wihtout exception inside the same app is killer, even if you have the latest iPhone.

That's what made me return to WhatsApp in the first place. That, coupled with an apparently flawless experience.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by Indyan on Thursday February 20, 2014 @03:14AM (#7269598)

It's not just the raw numbers. I would love to move onto Telegram, which is more secure, has an API, and works from a desktop. But, I can't.

There are about five or six odd people in my life (professional or private) that I message frequently. Even if 1 out of them isn't on a particular messaging platform, I can't adopt that platform wholeheartedly. With Fb Messages, Hangouts and every other popular smartphone oriented messaging platform there would always be that one or two contacts that you regularly communicate with, who would be left out due to having an incompatible device. Whatsapp on the other hand works on pretty much every phone. When you want to replace something as prevalent as SMS, the long tail matters.

There's another tangible benefit of focusing on so many platforms. Whatsapp, which doesn't spend much (if anything at all) on promotion, is prominently featured in the advertisements of many budget phones, as manufacturers see Whatsapp support as a strong selling point.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by mkesper on Thursday February 20, 2014 @05:58AM (#7270127)

Use SMS.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by SyneRyder on Thursday February 20, 2014 @08:58AM (#7270714)

Not when SMS costs 29c per message. The free global text messaging that Whatsapp provides is potentially very disruptive to telcos.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by aleh on Thursday February 20, 2014 @10:07AM (#7271061)

It's the same way around. If telcos drop SMS const or make them free few people will have initiative to use Whatsapp.

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Re:Your Path to a $16B exit? Build a J2ME App by qwerta on Thursday February 20, 2014 @04:37AM (#7269879)

Yeah, all those people in India and Africa use latest Iphone :-)

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