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To: MGV who wrote (166279)	2/23/2014 4:50:39 PM
From: Doren	Respond to of 213177

> How often can Zuckerberg afford to spend $19 billion About 40% as many times as Apple could? This is a special case. The guys who developed WhatApp really thought through their strategy and knocked it out of the park. By not advertising and not charging they sucked up customers so fast no one noticed them until it was too late. Doesn't matter how good Zucks programmers are, the customers are already on WhatsApp and they aren't going to move, just like no one moved to Google+ or whatever their social thingee is. WhatsApp people socialize with WhatsApp, Facebook will never attract them back to socializing with Facebook. They are different than you and I, they are the people walking into traffic without looking because they are absorbed by their diePhones. They are ABSORBED. Zuckerberg correctly saw that WhatsApp IS the new Facebook for these users, and he bought it, saving his corporation. Now for a analogy... Suppose android had been developed independently (no Google purchase), given away and grown to 400M users nearly overnight. Would it be worth 50B for Apple to suppress or absorb it if Google were bidding for it too? Or should Apple try to develop another platform similar to Android and iOS? 50B sounds like a lot until you get out your calculator app and figure out what Apple would be worth if Android didn't exist. Its not the code, its the user base and the long term threat. The WhatsApp guys were insidious, understanding that without ads or cost the user base would soar. It was just a matter of time before someone paid them off, or worse but still good they put in ads like Facebook eventually did. Just imagine where Apple would be if it was only competing with Windows and Blackberry. I think once you think it through it was a no brainer for Zuck. Google is the big loser here. They'll never compete with FB now. And I think I can confidently predict that two years from now there will be ads on WhatsApp's multibillon user base. Facebook will be collecting and selling information about the users. And WhatsApp clients won't be able to do a thing about it.