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posted by
LaminatorX
on Saturday February 22 2014, @12:00AM
from the It's-like-a-telegram-but-on-a-phone dept.
from the It's-like-a-telegram-but-on-a-phone dept.
siliconwafer writes:
"Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp has generated a lot of noise in the financial and tech industries, with some calling the purchase price 'down-right silly' and 'jaw-dropping', and others have said the price is fair, but question the strategy. Is the purchase price evidence that we're entering entering another tech bubble reminiscent of the 1990s? Some say no, while others believe that a bubble may exist only in social media, given that the Global X Social Media Index ETF has outperformed the NASDAQ over the past year."
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Have we entered another tech bubble?
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by muthauzem on Saturday February 22 2014, @01:53AM
What slashdot have taught me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_Law_of_ Headlines [wikipedia.org]
But in spite of that, actually "Yes", in my opinion. I would say that the Facebook+WhatsApp stuff is not just "a signal of a tech bubble", but THE signal of a tech bubble. The cherry on the top...
Of course you can see value in 450 million users. But 16 billion? Really? That can't be right.
In a market where the next shiny and hip thing will come next week, how can you really spend 16b on something that's just a IM and believe that those users won't just migrate?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by elgrantrolo on Saturday February 22 2014, @04:27AM
I think the 450M number misunderestimates what's at stake here. When you authorise Skype, Viber, Whatsap and any other messaging app to use your phone's addressbook, you're essentially giving ALL your contacts to the messaging overlords. With names, phone numbers, email addresses and companies being merged into contacts, it will certainly make it possible for them to have more data to identify everyone who uses a phone with any other social media network.
I am relatively anonymous because of a common name and not having many friends on FB, but that ends when the messaging people are given the town, company I work for and all the phone numbers (home, work, personal) as other people fill in manually when adding me to their social networks.
To me it's very clear that "El Gran Trolo" and other internet pseudonyms will be translated to an actual IRL identity with a browsing and geolocation history. On my part, by keeping Adblock running, I am not rewarding the advertising effort, but that's not a problem for Facebook. They sell the advertising space, not a promise I'll buy something from their customers.
(Score: 1) by Jerry Smith on Saturday February 22 2014, @09:04AM
And how many of those users are new users? Users that add new data to the portfolio? My estimate is that at least 30% of the Whatsappers had already handed over their data by being on Facebook as well.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.