Forbes Spears Facebook over WhatsApp

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Jonathan Baskin over at Forbes brings up some very real issues about the money shuffle in the technology sector and how more and more often the money is getting spent on nothing.

Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp is evidence of get rich innovation, and confusing it with technology innovation – the types of solutions American businesses need – gives tech innovation a bad name.
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I for one am very disturbed by the acquisition, and not only because they could have bought Jamaica with that money. They are paying 19 billion dollars for something that has basically zero revenue, at least compared to the purchase price. Many millions of people worked very hard to generate that 19 billion, which filtered it's way into Facebook's advertising companies, which filtered into Facebook. How many people worked themselves ragged to generate that money? How many people's kids were ignored because they were working long hours to make ends meet? How many worthwhile expenses were ignored so that 19 billion could make it's way into Facebook's bottom line?

Facebook just told you, me, and everyone that 19 billion dollars is nothing to them.
 
Gweenz said:
I for one am very disturbed by the acquisition, and not only because they could have bought Jamaica with that money. They are paying 19 billion dollars for something that has basically zero revenue, at least compared to the purchase price. Many millions of people worked very hard to generate that 19 billion, which filtered it's way into Facebook's advertising companies, which filtered into Facebook. How many people worked themselves ragged to generate that money? How many people's kids were ignored because they were working long hours to make ends meet? How many worthwhile expenses were ignored so that 19 billion could make it's way into Facebook's bottom line?

Facebook just told you, me, and everyone that 19 billion dollars is nothing to them.
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What in the actual fuck.
 
Gweenz said:
I for one am very disturbed by the acquisition, and not only because they could have bought Jamaica with that money. They are paying 19 billion dollars for something that has basically zero revenue, at least compared to the purchase price. Many millions of people worked very hard to generate that 19 billion, which filtered it's way into Facebook's advertising companies, which filtered into Facebook. How many people worked themselves ragged to generate that money? How many people's kids were ignored because they were working long hours to make ends meet? How many worthwhile expenses were ignored so that 19 billion could make it's way into Facebook's bottom line?

Facebook just told you, me, and everyone that 19 billion dollars is nothing to them.
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Even more disturbing is this post.
 
They're buying hundreds of millions of users. These users can be turned into "facebook" users which inflates this metric and investors get a boner over it for whatever reason. These "users" will also "click" on ads supposedly... making FB "more" money. Yeah, we'll see about that.

There are also a lot of international users of this app which could spread the facebook brand. Lots of people also are using FB for its messaging feature (which is marginal, but works in a pinch).

Is it worth 19B? Hell no. I'm just trying to figure out some reasons.
 
here is a simple test:

Is it your money?


Nope -- so nobody cares what you do, say, or think. It's Facebook's money, if they want to have a mountain of 100's in the words biggest money BBQ, that's their own bag.

Nobody tells you how to spend the money you have in your bank account do they? If they want to blow it let them blow it.
 
collegeboy69us said:
here is a simple test:

Is it your money?


Nope -- so nobody cares what you do, say, or think. It's Facebook's money, if they want to have a mountain of 100's in the words biggest money BBQ, that's their own bag.

Nobody tells you how to spend the money you have in your bank account do they? If they want to blow it let them blow it.
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You cared enough to comment on it. I wasn't aware that no one was allowed to discuss actions other than ones for which they are directly responsible. We should shut down the internet in that case.
 
Super-D said:
You cared enough to comment on it. I wasn't aware that no one was allowed to discuss actions other than ones for which they are directly responsible. We should shut down the internet in that case.
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All the negativity surrounding the acquisition is what gets me.

I bought a Logitech 5.1 system I really didn't need a few days ago, but nobody gives a crap about that (rightfully so)

What I find hilarious is that the people who's idea it was to buy it... even if it totally tanks, and they never make a single dollar back on their purchase price, they will still retire richer than you or I will ever be.

Rich people blowing wads of money... it's just like all those reality shows that cater to the same sort of idea. Anyone with a glimmer of independent thought just doesn't give a damn.

Partially related since it's "facebook" - as a soon to be 32 year old regular ass white guy, I'm more and more considering deleting my account. It's not useful, and doesn't do anything outside of be some creepy spy tool IMO. It was great back in 2004 when you had to have an edu and it was cool.

If I worked there I'd be blowing tons of cash too, because it won't be around 10 years from now.
 
these apps are just fads until the next one comes out. i don't think it's worth 19 billion.
 
Gweenz said:
Many millions of people worked very hard to generate that 19 billion, which filtered it's way into Facebook's advertising companies, which filtered into Facebook. How many people worked themselves ragged to generate that money? How many people's kids were ignored because they were working long hours to make ends meet? How many worthwhile expenses were ignored so that 19 billion could make it's way into Facebook's bottom line?
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You have no idea where money comes from.
 
A female friend of mine was insisting there's no login required to use this mobile only group chat. When I asked her that's not really possible, she said it identifies you by your number heh...

So, are 450 million new MSISDN records worth $19 billion? Probably not, but I am sure this number will help FB "grow" its user base for the investors.

This is exactly how this yahoo managed to "bring back" the users.
 
dgz said:
A female friend of mine was insisting there's no login required to use this mobile only group chat. When I asked her that's not really possible, she said it identifies you by your number heh...

So, are 450 million new MSISDN records worth $19 billion? Probably not, but I am sure this number will help FB "grow" its user base for the investors.

This is exactly how this yahoo managed to "bring back" the users.
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And Yahoo is famously now having the problem of growing views and shrinking revenue. Marissa is going to be a pariah in a year or two.
 
colinstu said:
They're buying hundreds of millions of users. These users can be turned into "facebook" users which inflates this metric and investors get a boner over it for whatever reason. These "users" will also "click" on ads supposedly... making FB "more" money. Yeah, we'll see about that.

There are also a lot of international users of this app which could spread the facebook brand. Lots of people also are using FB for its messaging feature (which is marginal, but works in a pinch).

Is it worth 19B? Hell no. I'm just trying to figure out some reasons.
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The problem with this is that most likely these users are already face book users. I don't think that's the goal here.
 
this must be the stupidest acquisition of all times, 19bln for a fucking chat, ridiculous! what this world has came to...
 
It's not about chat it's about monopoly, they bought it because they were getting bigger and more popular and any monopoly can't let that happednd, can't beat them buy them. Unfortunately this is bad strategy for internet company, people arledy start too move to 'telegram' app.
 
If you've ever used WhatsApp before you know that what made them unique and successful was they tied usernames to phone numbers. What this means is that you never had to actually create a username and password and all that crap. You could install the app and your phone number WAS your username, this way you could immediately begin texting other people on WhatsApp without having to establish a "friends list" or any such thing. It was a great concept for replacing SMS.

Facebook just acquired 100m phone numbers to go with their facebook accounts. This is probably worth untold billions to any number of agencies in the spam market business.
 
I think its great how people struggle to find reasons for this 19b purchase...there are no 'real', or tangible ones,...the truth is right in the article:


Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp is evidence of get rich innovation, and confusing it with technology innovation – the types of solutions American businesses need – gives tech innovation a bad name.
Click to expand...

He is saying and I believe correctly.. its becoming the credit default swaps and infinite leverage magic of high finances but on the 'technology' sector.
 
rudy said:
The problem with this is that most likely these users are already face book users. I don't think that's the goal here.
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I would guess that is really is less than 25% non-facebook account holders. I think it was more to keep it out of Google's hands and boost their stock price.
 
Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp is evidence of get rich innovation, and confusing it with technology innovation – the types of solutions American businesses need – gives tech innovation a bad name.
Click to expand...

I also 100% agree with this. I do not use What'sApp, though my wife does to keep in contact with her family around the world. The first thing I thought when seeing it was, "ICQ on the phone, that's cool."

I'm not sure if I would call it innovative, smart sure, but not innovative.
 
russnuck said:
I would guess that is really is less than 25% non-facebook account holders. I think it was more to keep it out of Google's hands and boost their stock price.
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Only a really stupid investor gets happy when their investment blows its entire equity offering on something it could have had for a couple hundred K.
 
Super-D said:
You cared enough to comment on it. I wasn't aware that no one was allowed to discuss actions other than ones for which they are directly responsible. We should shut down the internet in that case.
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Actually if you own Facebook stock then technically speaking part of it is your money...fail for him other than a worthless troll post.
 
kerogre255 said:
It's not about chat it's about monopoly, they bought it because they were getting bigger and more popular and any monopoly can't let that happednd, can't beat them buy them. Unfortunately this is bad strategy for internet company, people arledy start too move to 'telegram' app.
Click to expand...

Except what does a monopoly over chat users get anyone?

It is one thing if your concern is an actual market with actual physical products....but this strikes me as being as pointless as the war for web browser dominance.
 
collegeboy69us said:
here is a simple test:

Is it your money?


Nope -- so nobody cares what you do, say, or think. It's Facebook's money, if they want to have a mountain of 100's in the words biggest money BBQ, that's their own bag.
Click to expand...

Actually it really isn't, because they're a publicly traded company.
 
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