What's Up with WhatsApp? Mexico Sheds Some Light Karl Baker - The Christian Science Monitor
go to original March 3, 2014

WhatsApp Messenger: Meet the Founders - Operating under the radar, the creators of the app have worked to fulfill a singular vision: Create a good messaging service. (The New York Times)

It’s the most popular texting service in Mexico, and as of last week Facebook declared that it has a market value in the billions. The smartphone app, which is little known in the US but widely used across Latin America and the developing world, was purchased by the social network for $19 billion. That’s over twice what Microsoft paid for Skype in 2011.

The app has a streamlined look with an almost translucent but busy background full of pictures of bicycles, astronauts, and other images. Some in Mexico have told me that what sets the app apart is the speed with which it sends messages. There may be some truth to that, but the main driver of its popularity is, in fact, its fame. Users can only send messages to other users inside its ecosystem, forcing more and more people to declare an allegiance.

... The $19-billion price tag might surprise American observers accustomed to easy texting, but the reality of phone plans in places like Mexico City tells a different story. Here, monthly cell phone plans are not as common as in the US, where unlimited texting is assumed. Many Mexican users buy phone credit – usually at a local convenience store – which they then gradually consume. A text message gobbles up about $0.07 on the country's Telcel network (owned by billionaire Carlos Slim), even though it costs the company a small fraction of that amount.

Read the rest at The Christian Science Monitor

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