undefined | Better HN

0 pointsyen2231y ago0 comments

I don't think WhatsApp had the same kind of revenue that Wiz has, even normalised for 2014 numbers.

0 comments

disgruntledphd21y ago

Revenue and profit are very different. Like, it's easy to pump revenue at a loss.

I don't really see the benefits of this acquisition for Google, but congrats to the Wiz team!

noboostforyou1y ago

> I don't really see the benefits of this acquisition for Google

At the very least it's a giant book of sales leads.

disgruntledphd21y ago

Yeah, I see that but it doesn't really feel like $32bn worth of value.

atemerev1y ago

WhatsApp purchase was for that sweet sweet data of everyone's contact lists (this was their original innovation for onboarding — just give us access to your phone book and we'll tell you who else is on WhatsApp). Their earnings were completely irrelevant in price discussions. The billions were paid for the dataset.

WhyNotHugo1y ago

Indeed. It's not just an incredible dataset, it's a self-updating one too.

Marsymars1y ago

I'd expect a lot of the money was also to prevent a competitor with WhatsApp's ubiquity from existing. (Or selling to another competitor.)

atemerev1y ago

That too, of course. WhatsApp itself was a work of art at that point, its success should be studied and hopefully emulated.

1 more reply

dataflow1y ago

Any idea what profitable things they do with that data?

atemerev1y ago

Mostly ad targeting (you can infer a lot of things from the global graph of contacts). Meta is an attention routing company.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

disgruntledphd21y ago

Revenue and profit are very different. Like, it's easy to pump revenue at a loss.

I don't really see the benefits of this acquisition for Google, but congrats to the Wiz team!

noboostforyou1y ago

> I don't really see the benefits of this acquisition for Google

At the very least it's a giant book of sales leads.

disgruntledphd21y ago

Yeah, I see that but it doesn't really feel like $32bn worth of value.

atemerev1y ago

WhyNotHugo1y ago

Indeed. It's not just an incredible dataset, it's a self-updating one too.

Marsymars1y ago

I'd expect a lot of the money was also to prevent a competitor with WhatsApp's ubiquity from existing. (Or selling to another competitor.)

atemerev1y ago

That too, of course. WhatsApp itself was a work of art at that point, its success should be studied and hopefully emulated.

1 more reply

dataflow1y ago

Any idea what profitable things they do with that data?

atemerev1y ago

Mostly ad targeting (you can infer a lot of things from the global graph of contacts). Meta is an attention routing company.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse