The most concise explanation yet for why Facebook's paying $19 billion for WhatsApp

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As @Cowicide’s noted in his comment to the previous whatsapp story.
From TFA:

Not least, Facebook now has a valuable piece of real-world information: millions of people’s phone numbers. “With the acquisition Facebook has gained access to WhatsApp’s large repository of phone numbers, which was a missing link for Facebook’s user information,” Ovum analyst Eden Zoller said in a note. “The access to phone numbers now bridges the offline and online worlds of Facebook users.”
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Doesn’t make 19 Billion Dollars any less insane IMHO. That’s dot.com bubble nonsense.

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I wish she’d included G+ on that graph, just for the lulz.

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I wish the graph had a logarithmic vertical scale. Much more useful for comparing growth rates.

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What does growth in these ventures look like after google/fb/whoever buys them?

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It’s so surreal hearing about the popularity and worth of services that I never use. I just got comfortable with texting last year and use it, oh, every week or so.

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The other thing WA had was a business plan that made some kind of sense, and wasn’t based on ‘lets hope advertising will be enough’. No Ads, instead you get one year free, and it’s 1 £/$/€ per year after that.
It might not be the the best business idea, but at least they had a concrete plan that could have made actual money, rather than just increasing a stock valuation.

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Was looking to use the WhatsApp on my Windows Phone, but was dissuaded. The forums discussed how the App for Windows lacked the one key feature that most users want it for. The Android & iOS versions let you send free text messages overseas to people who don’t have the app on their phone. It looked like the biggest users of the App were in Asia and elsewhere. Looked like a lot of Asian expats in California were using it too. Crazy price? Maybe but Facebook just bought themselves a butt load of users and most of them are in markets they desperately want to be in.

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