Author Archives: David

WhatsApp’s biggest competitor is a solution that you may have never heard of: WeChat. WeChat, offered by a company called Tencent Holding (HKG: 0700), is the most popular messaging solution in China.

Currently, WeChat , or Weixin in Mandarin, has around 600 million users around the world, while WhatsApp has around 900 million . It is also easy to see why news reports indicate that WeChat is much more versatile, user friendly, and fun to use than WhatsApp.

Another reason why WeChat is so successful is that it is far more than just a messaging service. The best way to think of Weixin is as Uber, WhatsApp, PayPal’s Venmo, and Apple Pay all rolled into one.

So What Is WeChat Anyway?

Using WeChat, a Chinese person can send money to her family, call for a cab, send a message to her boyfriend, send a video to her girlfriend, and pay for a drink from a vending machine. Users can also post news stories, read the latest news, and play mobile games.

Many American companies, including PayPal, Apple, Facebook, and Google, are trying to copy some of WeChat’s capabilities because of the money it makes. Apple has brought out its own payment solution called Apple Pay, PayPal now owns the popular money transfer app Venmo , Google has launched its own messaging service and payment solution, and Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion. Not to be outdone, the Korean electronics giant Samsung has released its own product, called Samsung Pay.

The reason these companies are so interested in copying WeChat is obvious: It makes a lot of money. Business Insider reported that Tencent made $1.1 billion in a year by processing WeChat money transfers. Foreign Policy reported that Tencent values WeChat at $30 billion and estimates that it makes up to $95 off of every customer, while Facebook only makes $42 off of every user.

WeChat vs. WhatsApp

Another good way to think of WeChat is like Google—a platform that allows a user to do a lot of things through a phone, just as Google lets you perform many different tasks through its search engine.

WeChat can also be viewed as the future of WhatsApp; it is what solutions like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger will look like in a few years. It is obvious that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg would like to transform WhatsApp into something like WeChat. Something to remember is that Zuckerberg, whose wife is of Chinese descent, spends a lot of time in China and even speaks Mandarin, so he is very familiar with WeChat and its capabilities.

Observers have noted that WeChat has some other advantages over WhatsApp; it appears to be more private than the American service. A popular feature is WeChat privacy circles that allow people to chat only with those they want, such as friends or business partners. Unfortunately, it is easy to gain access to circles by impersonating somebody.

Yet another popular feature on WeChat is its restrictions; a WeChat user can only be messaged by people he or she has invited. Unfortunately, cybercriminals can easily circumvent that security measure by impersonation.

Finally, many people prefer WeChat because it is simpler than WhatsApp and easy to use. WhatsApp, like a lot of American solutions, is needlessly complex. It sometimes betrays its roots as the creation of Silicon Valley math geniuses.

WeChat’s Achilles Heel—Security

Despite its popularity, WeChat has some serious weaknesses that could make it less popular around the world. The biggest of these is the Chinese government, which could be using it as a surveillance tool.

According to some online conspiracy theories, China’s security services are monitoring WeChat conversations. A few observers even think that Chinese and other WeChat users outside the country could be under surveillance.

If these claims are true, WeChat has serious privacy and security problems. The same features used by Chinese security services could be used by other nations’ spy agencies, particularly the American National Security Agency, or NSA, and the British Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ.

To make matters worse, it would be a simple matter for hackers and other cybercriminals to commandeer the surveillance tools in WeChat for their own nefarious purposes, such as blackmail. The amount of money moved through WeChat will certainly attract criminals.

Beyond surveillance, the Chinese government blocks Facebook use in that country. That creates a sort of captive market for WeChat, which means it does not compete directly with its biggest rival on its home turf.

Is WeChat WhatsApp’s Future?

Those that want to see what WhatsApp might look like in the near future need to take a close look at WeChat. Facebook is trying to mimic many of the Chinese solution’s capabilities.

As noted above, Facebook is working to commercialize WhatsApp. One of the best ways to achieve that would be to add a money transfer service similar to PayPal or Apple Pay to it.

WeChat has already demonstrated the power of such an app. There are now videos online that show people buying snacks from vending machines using WeChat. Some Coca-Cola vending machines in the United States now take Apple Pay.

Another U.S. payment app called Current C , which is being developed by large retailers, including Walmart, Costco, and Kroger, could allow users the ability to pay for fuel directly at the pump with an app. Current C is presently being tested at a number of retail stores in Columbus, Ohio.

Both Current C and Apple Pay have another feature that could be added to WhatsApp at some point in the future. Both apps can be integrated with the popular loyalty card programs offered by many American retailers. Kroger , which operates several large supermarket chains in the U.S., including Ralph’s, Harris Teeter, and King Soopers, gives customer one point for every $1 worth of groceries they buy.

Every 100 points a customer accumulates gives her a 10¢ a gallon discount on fuel at a Kroger-owned filling station. In addition to supermarkets, Kroger now owns and operates 2,000 filling stations in the United States.

One strong possibility is that people will be able to access loyalty points and make payments through WhatsApp at some point. Another is that they will be able to order products directly through WhatsApp much as they can order products through Amazon.

If you are interested in seeing WeChat for yourself, it is available at the Apple App Store , Google Play , and the Windows Store .

The most astounding thing about WhatsApp is the numbers associated with it. The statistics prove that WhatsApp is far more than just a messaging solution; it is a potent social media force and a growing platform that reaches hundreds of millions of people.

One reason why the numbers are mind blowing is that many people simply do not know how big WhatsApp really is. The app’s simplicity and ease of use are highly deceptive. Since it is so basic, many people underestimate WhatsApp’s power and influence. The best way to counter this misapprehension and understand just how important WhatsApp has become is to crunch a few numbers.

Ten Incredible WhatsApp Statistics

These statistics demonstrate just how valuable WhatsApp really is and show us why it could become the Google of media at some point in the future:

1. More people use WhatsApp than live on the entire continent of Europe. In October 2015 there were 900 million—nearly one billon—active WhatsApp users. The population of Europe in 2013 was estimated at 742.5 million. That number includes several large nations, including Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

1. If WhatsApp’s active users were a nation, that country would have nearly three times the population of the United States of America. The estimated population of the United States in 2014 was 318.9 million, while the number of WhatsApp users was estimated at 900 million as we noted above.

1. WhatsApp added 200 million new active users in just nine months. According to Statista, there were 700 million WhatsApp users in January 2015 and 900 million in October 2015. That means 200 million people signed up for the service in just nine months. That means around 22 million people a month are joining WhatsApp and more people sign up for WhatsApp each month than live in the nation of Romania, which has a population of 22 million people.

1. WhatsApp apparently owns the Indian market for messaging services. There were around 70 million active users in the nation of India, WhatsApp’s vice president for global business revealed at a conference in Mumbai. Since the population of India is around 1.252 billion, that means around 6% of the country’s population are WhatsApp users.

1. Nearly one out of seven people in the world could be using WhatsApp. If there really are 900 million WhatsApp users, that means almost one billion people are now using the solution. Since the globe’s population is now estimated at around seven billion people, that means one out of seven people in the world is using WhatsApp. That could make WhatsApp the most successful brand in human history.

1. Despite its success, WhatsApp only has around 80 employees, The Times of India reported. That means around 80 people in an office in San Jose, California, are in charge of the information flow and communications for nearly one billion individuals around the world.

1. WhatsApp is worth around $22 billion; that is how much Facebook Inc. paid for the messaging solution in February 2014. WhatsApp is so valuable that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was willing to give WhatsApp creators Jan Koum and Brian Acton 116 million shares of Facebook stock worth $9 billion to get control of the application.

1. WhatsApp has already created at least one billionaire. Jan Koum, an impoverished immigrant whose family was on welfare when he was a boy, received 76.4 million shares of Facebook worth around $5.8 billion. Since Facebook stock was trading at $101.9 a share on October 23, 2015, Koum’s payment for WhatsApp was worth around $7 billion on that day.

1. The $22 billion may have been money well spent for Zuckerberg because Facebook is now the largest messaging solution in the world. Facebook’s two messaging services, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, could reach 1.6 billion people. In addition to 900 million WhatsApp users, Facebook Messenger has around 700 million users, according to London’s Daily Express. Basic math tells us that when 700 million is added to 900 million, the result is 1.6 billion.

1. Facebook and WhatsApp can now reach more people than any other media in human history. The two social media organizations can now reach more people than newspapers, television, or possibly even radio. Zuckerberg can now reach more people than media tycoons like William Randolph Hearst, Rupert P. Murdoch, or Lord Northcliffe could have ever dreamed of reaching. For example, there were around 86 million cable and satellite TV subscribers in the United States and around 94 million pay television subscribers in India. That means WhatsApp already reaches more people around the world than pay television does.

These numbers tell us that Mr. Zuckerberg may have gotten one of the greatest bargains in history when he purchased WhatsApp. For $22 billion, Facebook may have gotten control of one of the world’s most popular and potent communications mediums—a medium that could be growing faster than any other in history.

Television, for example, only reaches around 60% of the people in India even though it has existed in one form or another since the 1930s. Actually, it took television nearly thirty years to reach most communities in the United States, the world’s most technologically advanced nation.

WhatsApp has only existed since 2009—the year President Obama took office. Yet it has already reached nearly one seventh of the world’s population. That makes WhatsApp far more than a mere smartphone application; it could be the most effective communications solution in history.

One has to wonder what will happen when WhatsApp is combined with other technologies such as money transfer services, streaming video, and audio. It could be used to disrupt the music, television, movies, and even financial services industries. The application could also be used to reach people in the real world, for example, to spread a political message.

The statistics show us that WhatsApp has the potential to become one of the most disruptive communications technologies in human history. Like earlier communications technologies, it could spark a revolution much as the printing press launched the Reformation, which turned Europe upside down in the 16^th century. It is easy to see why WhatsApp’s numbers are mind blowing.

Even though it is an American app created and owned by a U.S.-based company, WhatsApp has had its biggest success in India. There are currently over 70 million WhatsApp users in that nation, according to the Times of India.

The app has become far more than just a messaging solution in India; in fact, it has become a part of everyday life. People on the subcontinent are using it for virtually everything from ordering food to ending an unwanted marriage. Unlike Americans, who think of WhatsApp as just a messaging option, Indians are using it for virtually everything.

Divorce by WhatsApp

Some Muslim men are actually using WhatsApp to divorce their wives, The International Business Times reported . The unfaithful husbands were taking advantage of a loophole in Islamic law that allows a verbal divorce based on the word Talaq, which means “I divorce you” in Arabic. The men tried sending their wives a Talaq over WhatsApp rather than facing them directly.

The use of WhatsApp for divorce has created a controversy because most Islamic lawyers and scholars think the WhatsApp Talaqs are not valid. Unfortunately, the practice seems to be growing and has even led to public protests.

Suicide Prevention by WhatsApp

A more positive use of WhatsApp is being undertaken by farmers in a very poor region called Maharashtra. Around a hundred farmers formed a group called Baliraja to share information about agriculture and organize themselves for political action over WhatsApp, The Better India reported .

The farmers are trying to learn and share agricultural practices and improve their business. They are also trying to create a more supportive community because the region has a very high suicide rate.

Some of the farmers are so desperate that they choose to kill themselves rather than to go into debt or face low prices for crops. Some of the farmers are also trying to organize a cooperative and a warehouse in an attempt to get around unscrupulous middlemen.

Future plans include setting up an insurance plan for farmers, organizing a better marketing system to raise crop prices, and lobbying the local government for better roads and schools. The idea is to use WhatsApp to organize farmers into a political force and hopefully prevent the desperate economic conditions that are driving some of the farmers to kill themselves.

Dates and Dinner from WhatsApp

If you live in Mumbai, the city formerly known as Bombay, you can arrange dinner, a ride to the airport, or even a date via WhatsApp. A group of students from a local technical college have organized a WhatsApp-based concierge or personal assistant service that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, DNAIndia reported .

The service, called Tathastu, means amen or so be it. Customers use the service to contact a concierge or dog robber, a personal assistant that will do anything for them. For example, the assistant might go out and find you a pizza at 3 a.m. in the morning or pick up your prescription from the local pharmacy.

Other services arranged have been a helicopter ride, organizing a party, assembling a desktop computer, arranging a dinner date on a cruise, creating face masks, and processing a passport. The idea is to provide everyday people with the kind of personal assistants currently available to high-ranking military officers or wealthy celebrities.

If you want to live like Kim Kardashian but you lack the money, this could be your chance. At least you could have a personal assistant to run out and get a cup of coffee for you at 4 a.m. Unfortunately, you will have to pay a very large tip for the service, which is obviously not cheap.

Internet Expansion via WhatsApp

WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook are the driving force behind a massive internet expansion in India, Vikas Jain, the co-founder of Micromax Informatics Ltd, a major smartphone maker in India, told The Wall Street Journal.

Jain described WhatsApp as the two biggest drivers of Internet use in China at a conference in Laguna Beach, California. Jain’s company builds smartphones that are specifically designed to be used with solutions such as WhatsApp. He retails the phones through brick-and-mortar stores that reach average people where they live.

Unlike major companies such as Apple and Samsung, Jain has no plans to create his own operating system or apps, because WhatsApp is the driving force in the market. Instead, he simply provides Android devices that are designed to make it easy for average people to utilize WhatsApp.

WhatsApp as a Political Issue

WhatsApp is so popular in India that it is now a major political issue in the country. When the nation’s security agencies proposed changes to the law that would ban WhatsApp’s encryption technology, a political firestorm ensued.

Social media users became angry at proposals that would have required them to store all of their online communication for 90 days, CNN reported . The users flooded India’s parliament with complaints, and telecommunications minister Ravi Shankar Prashad listened; he quickly withdrew the plan.

Many of the users criticized the measure as undemocratic and contrary to India’s political traditions of personal freedom. Others were simply unhappy at the government’s plans to spy on them.

It is hard to imagine Americans getting up in arms over a social messaging service, but Indians did because for many of them, WhatsApp is now their principal means of communication. It is how they stay in touch with their friends, family, and business associates. Not surprisingly, they do not like the idea of the government monitoring those communications.

India Is the Future of WhatsApp

It looks as if India could be WhatsApp’s most important market, and India could be the future of the app. The way people in that nation utilize this simple messaging solution could shape the future of Internet telecommunications.

If you want to see the future of WhatsApp and messaging, India is the place to look. The many innovative uses being found for WhatsApp on the subcontinent will be copied all over the world, making India the future of WhatsApp and the place where this messaging solution could be transformed into a powerful communications platform.

WhatsApp could become an incredibly disruptive force in politics because it is so cheap and readily accessible. The qualities that have made WhatsApp one of the world’s most successful messaging solutions and communications platforms also make it a potent political weapon.

Those that want to see how WhatsApp could affect the political process should take a look at the September general election in the Eastern African nation of Tanzania. During that contest, WhatsApp became the principal means of political communication because it is the most accessible social media in Tanzania, Quartz reported . Tanzanian politicians turned to WhatsApp there for the same reason American politicians go to county fairs and pancake breakfasts; it’s where the voters are.

“WhatsApp is a preferred tool of choice for propaganda, mudslinging, and negative messaging,” an unidentified digital media analyst in Tanzania told Quartz. The analyst described WhatsApp as a go-to communication platform for political messaging.

One reason why WhatsApp can reach so many people in Tanzania is that it is the cheapest and easiest means of reaching the Internet for many of that nation’s people. Smartphones sold in the country have the app preinstalled, and Tanzanians can purchase 60 megabytes of data for around $1, making it easy for even the poorest person to access it.

How WhatsApp Disrupts Politics

WhatsApp has disrupted politics in Tanzania by enabling average people to create networks of activists for or against a candidate. The networks often operate like the Political Action Committees, or PACs, that play such an important role in American politics.

Politicians love PACs because they can do things that a candidate on the stump cannot. For example, a PAC can call an opponent names or spread questionable rumors about that individual.

In Tanzania, surrogates or fronts for the candidates used WhatsApp for mudslinging. One popular tactic is to share pictures that show an opponent in an unflattering light. An even more disturbing tactic is to play to prejudices.

Opponents of presidential candidate Edward Lowassa obtained clip of him telling a group of Lutherans to pray for him to win because Tanzania needs a Lutheran president. The idea, of course, was to make Lowassa look prejudiced against people of other faiths.

That clip bounced around WhatsApp and eventually made it into the mainstream media. Apparently, the church a candidate attends is an important issue in Tanzanian politics.

One of the major hopes of political activists in Tanzania was to get a rumor or an image to go viral on WhatsApp in order to reach as many voters as possible. That tactic apparently worked with the Lowassa clip.

Dumbing Down Politics

A major danger with media like WhatsApp is that it can dumb down politics. People that dislike the simplicity and sheer stupidity of present-day politics will not like WhatsApp politics very much.

“This is a social media driven election, where people want easy to consume content that doesn’t make us think a lot,” the digital media strategist told Quartz. “It’s like Arsenal versus Chelsea rather than about issues.”

Arsenal and Chelsea are two famous soccer teams that play in the British Premier League. Not surprisingly, many Americans and others will wonder if WhatsApp will have a similar impact on politics elsewhere.

WhatsApp and the News

WhatsApp apparently played a role in the recent British general election. A number of major London newspapers, including The Telegraph and The Daily Mirror, created special feeds to spread political news via WhatsApp. Similar political newsfeeds on WhatsApp also exist in India.

The danger with such feeds is that they could be used to send out news that only comes from one party’s perspective. Only stories that show the party’s candidates in a positive light and its opponents in a negative manner would be sent out. Any information counter to the party line would be ignored.

WhatsApp in American Politics

Social media is having a major impact on American politics. One insurgent candidate, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), has managed to leverage social media to issue a credible challenge to frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

One of Sanders’ biggest successes has been with fundraising over social media. During the Democratic debate on October 14, 2015, Sanders was able to raise $1.4 million, The Huffington Post reported . Most of the money came from small donors that sent increments of around $31.54 through social media.

Social media has helped Sanders, a socialist who has refused to take money from large donors and big corporations, bypass traditional fundraising and collect tens of millions of dollars. This has helped Sanders completely disrupt the campaign without using traditional methods such as television advertising.

Another way social media has helped Sanders is that many of his supporters sent clips of his debate performance to others that were not watching the debate. Sanders’ message got out even to large numbers of people that did not watch the debate and possibly reached people that normally do not pay attention to politics.

Some observers in the United States now think that social media could become the principal media that decides the U.S. election. A few have even compared it to the presidential election of 1960, the first American election in which television played a pivotal role. WhatsApp could play a role there because it is the cheapest and easiest way to access social media.

Favoring Alternative Candidates

If social media does become the primary means of political communication, that development will favor alternative candidates such as Sanders. One consequence of this will be that money will pay less of a role in elections because solutions like WhatsApp are so cheap.

Another is that the role of traditional media organizations such as television networks and newspapers could be greatly diminished because most voters will get their news directly from friends and family. Everybody will be his or her own editor and reporter, a situation that will dramatically change politics.

In the future, WhatsApp could become a major force in politics. It is only a matter of time before WhatsApp decides the outcome of an election somewhere.