" Not sure what Facebook employees don't understand"
It's the part where What's App doesn't actually make any money and as a standalone business isn't worth a whole lot.
The issue boils down to business model.
It's really easy for WhatsApp founders to take the moral high road when he doesn't have to bother with trying to make a dime.
The WhatsApp founder is in somewhat of a hypocritical position given that his $17 Billion dollars comes from FB practices that he is ostensibly uncomfortable with.
Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp. He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars when he realized how fundamentally he disagreed with how facebook works. Prior to WhatsApp the founders had very little money.
"Business model wise think with 1bn users an annual $1 fee would have been fine for WhatsApp."
If you've worked in the mobile app business you might get that this could mean almost 0 in revenues.
People. Don't. Pay. For. Stuff.
Moreover, WhatsApp is huge in places like S. America where people don't have credit cards, or for whom $1 is even too much.
"He also turned down hundreds of millions of dollars"
He took $17 Billion and is now publicly complaining that what FB is doing is immoral. He doesn't seem to have a problem taking money from that immoral business model.
Depends on how you define a company, I suppose. If it is profitable and has hundreds of millions of customers, that's a pretty significant company to me. As an alternative example, broadcast.com was sold for 5.7 billion.
I'd take continued success, hundreds of millions of happy users and a good purpose over broadcast.com.
