great write up! I know of a major insurance company that started to communicate via Whatsapp and found out that it reduced costs of handling 'a call' considerable (-50%) and with higher customer satisfaction (NPS), so I see a future here!
I agree. I think there is a long runway ahead for WhatsApp to provide value across a huge portion of the customer experience. What's wonderful is the incentives Meta's provides substantially de-risks 'trying' WhatsApp Business. If/when traction occurs, businesses are then likely to scale. Early innings.
We know Wechat works but no serious alternative in the West. Musk wants to do this with Twitter to some degree and I'm sure others will try. For me personally it would be nice if Meta refocused more on these existing projects as they have huge potential as you mentioned.
I personally love using Twitter - its 'real-timey' nature is amazing for news aggregations; especially for finance. But I don't think the company has the resources to develop anything close to what WhatsApp is, let alone what it's growing into. This is especially true when one of WhatsApp's core drivers is FoA broadly and FB + Insta feeding into it now for messaging. As Meta has mentioned, the West is now where WhatsApp is growing fastest. Even if Twitter or another company could try to emulate it, there is a near-impossible feat of fighting against its network effect.
Zuck's entire DealBook Summit interview from this past week helps clarify Meta's focus. And in terms of numbers, ~18% of spend is going into RL. ~82% is to the core business, including WhatsApp. 18% isn't trivial for RL, but I think the team is very committed to FoA. They've seemingly just done a terrible job at communicating it over the last year.
I think WhatsApp becomes a much greater focal point for the investing community in the next 12-18 months.
I watched Zuck on DealBook and it was like he was speaking to Metaverse doubters like me. It is a positive sign and I put in a starter limit order. He has great FCF that Twitter/Signal/Telegram/Discord won't be able to deploy. If he has the passion to make a Western Wechat it will happen.
great write up! I know of a major insurance company that started to communicate via Whatsapp and found out that it reduced costs of handling 'a call' considerable (-50%) and with higher customer satisfaction (NPS), so I see a future here!
Thanks for contributing your thoughts, Marc!
I agree. I think there is a long runway ahead for WhatsApp to provide value across a huge portion of the customer experience. What's wonderful is the incentives Meta's provides substantially de-risks 'trying' WhatsApp Business. If/when traction occurs, businesses are then likely to scale. Early innings.
We know Wechat works but no serious alternative in the West. Musk wants to do this with Twitter to some degree and I'm sure others will try. For me personally it would be nice if Meta refocused more on these existing projects as they have huge potential as you mentioned.
Thanks for your thoughts, Tim.
I personally love using Twitter - its 'real-timey' nature is amazing for news aggregations; especially for finance. But I don't think the company has the resources to develop anything close to what WhatsApp is, let alone what it's growing into. This is especially true when one of WhatsApp's core drivers is FoA broadly and FB + Insta feeding into it now for messaging. As Meta has mentioned, the West is now where WhatsApp is growing fastest. Even if Twitter or another company could try to emulate it, there is a near-impossible feat of fighting against its network effect.
Zuck's entire DealBook Summit interview from this past week helps clarify Meta's focus. And in terms of numbers, ~18% of spend is going into RL. ~82% is to the core business, including WhatsApp. 18% isn't trivial for RL, but I think the team is very committed to FoA. They've seemingly just done a terrible job at communicating it over the last year.
I think WhatsApp becomes a much greater focal point for the investing community in the next 12-18 months.
I watched Zuck on DealBook and it was like he was speaking to Metaverse doubters like me. It is a positive sign and I put in a starter limit order. He has great FCF that Twitter/Signal/Telegram/Discord won't be able to deploy. If he has the passion to make a Western Wechat it will happen.
Great write up my man
Thanks, Conor. I always appreciate you reading and sharing your thoughts.