Editorial: On purchase of $ 19 billion of Facebook to WhatsApp, from the point of view of a frequent traveler
Browse: Home/editorial: purchase of $ 19 billion of Facebook to WhatsApp, from A frequent traveler PerspectiveBy Humberto Saabedra on February 20, 2014
With the news yesterday that he was bought by Facebook to WhatsApp, many American and Anglo-Saxon outlets were expressing shock and surprise for the amount paid for the messaging service than previous purchases made by the social network. As someone who frequently travels outside the country, Facebook has got the deal of a lifetime and it has nothing to do with 450 million monthly active users of the service, it has to do with where those users and it is not the United States.
I'm going to focus on this editorial on Mexico and Latin America, since that is where I do most of my personal journey. The Latin America has some of the most expensive rates for wireless service in the Western Hemisphere outside the United States and Canada. To give an example, a screencap of prepaid service on Mexican wireless provider Iusacell, which offers 4 prepaid packages that include data along with a certain amount of airtime for voice calls and SMS per month:
The first package costs $ 11.50 USD, according to $15,05, the third and fourth $22,57 $37,62. They all double the airtime for voice calls (denominated in Mexican pesos), but note the number of SMS messages in each package than the amount of data delivered with 20 for the first packet 40 for second, 60 for third parties and 100 messages for the fourth.
With WhatsApp being bandwidth-efficient, most people can get on the first two packages for a month without having to spring for more expensive service other than topping up or even having to use the SMS message's allotment (fairly minimal). There is no incentive to use the SMS amount overpriced in packages above if WhatsApp can handle all your needs with specified data gardens.
SMS messages outside of the above amounts are charged at MXN $ 1.25 for each message that doesn't seem like much when converted there ¢ 0.09 cents, but when that airtime can be left alone and have you given more SMS data to use for the price, the adoption of WhatsApp starts to make sense, especially if it means not having to touch the TEXT MESSAGE bucket or airtime for voice calls. MMS is even more expensive to MXN $ 5.20 for each message or US ¢ 0.39 cents per message, which explains why even more use WhatsApp standard MMS messages instead of posting pictures and videos of dear to each other.
Another example is with Movistar of Spain, which also has a major presence in Mexico and share its network with the above vector. Rather than adopt a more conventional approach with this prepaid carrier actually rolls unlimited access to WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook for a flat rate of $15,05 per month with 200 SMS Messaging/voice and unlimited calls between customers on the same network in its most heavily promoted prepaid package:
Even with the increased assignment of unlimited calls and SMS Messaging/voice networking, people still prefer using WhatsApp to circumvent access restrictions imposed by the carrier. Virgin Mobile in Chile and Colombia also bundles of WhatsApp access in its service plans and promotes strongly the unification in its advertisements, pointing out how popular the service is in Latin America, due to its lack of unlimited Messaging packages on any local carriers compared to other countries.
While I don't use WhatsApp in the United States because of the ubiquity of prepaid flat-rate unlimited messaging, became a lifeline indispensable when traveling in Mexico, so I usually end up spending only $ 38 for Iusacell more expensive package for prepaid 3 GB of data and are together for up to a month, if not more.
While I'm sure most of the media is still wondering if $ 19 billion for a messaging app was a good idea, perhaps you could help to do some research and ask around before jumping to conclusions, especially when trying to purchase is sitting right in front of you. If this means important changes is another story entirely, but for now, the purchase price on WhatsApp is claimed by what enables users and carriers also make countries without access to economic data.
Published in vectors, editorials, Videos & Software | Tagged facebook, whatsapp |
With the news yesterday that he was bought by Facebook to WhatsApp, many American and Anglo-Saxon outlets were expressing shock and surprise for the amount paid for the messaging service than previous purchases made by the social network. As someone who frequently travels outside the country, Facebook has got the deal of a lifetime and it has nothing to do with 450 million monthly active users of the service, it has to do with where those users and it is not the United States.
I'm going to focus on this editorial on Mexico and Latin America, since that is where I do most of my personal journey. The Latin America has some of the most expensive rates for wireless service in the Western Hemisphere outside the United States and Canada. To give an example, a screencap of prepaid service on Mexican wireless provider Iusacell, which offers 4 prepaid packages that include data along with a certain amount of airtime for voice calls and SMS per month:
The first package costs $ 11.50 USD, according to $15,05, the third and fourth $22,57 $37,62. They all double the airtime for voice calls (denominated in Mexican pesos), but note the number of SMS messages in each package than the amount of data delivered with 20 for the first packet 40 for second, 60 for third parties and 100 messages for the fourth.
With WhatsApp being bandwidth-efficient, most people can get on the first two packages for a month without having to spring for more expensive service other than topping up or even having to use the SMS message's allotment (fairly minimal). There is no incentive to use the SMS amount overpriced in packages above if WhatsApp can handle all your needs with specified data gardens.
SMS messages outside of the above amounts are charged at MXN $ 1.25 for each message that doesn't seem like much when converted there ¢ 0.09 cents, but when that airtime can be left alone and have you given more SMS data to use for the price, the adoption of WhatsApp starts to make sense, especially if it means not having to touch the TEXT MESSAGE bucket or airtime for voice calls. MMS is even more expensive to MXN $ 5.20 for each message or US ¢ 0.39 cents per message, which explains why even more use WhatsApp standard MMS messages instead of posting pictures and videos of dear to each other.
Another example is with Movistar of Spain, which also has a major presence in Mexico and share its network with the above vector. Rather than adopt a more conventional approach with this prepaid carrier actually rolls unlimited access to WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook for a flat rate of $15,05 per month with 200 SMS Messaging/voice and unlimited calls between customers on the same network in its most heavily promoted prepaid package:
Even with the increased assignment of unlimited calls and SMS Messaging/voice networking, people still prefer using WhatsApp to circumvent access restrictions imposed by the carrier. Virgin Mobile in Chile and Colombia also bundles of WhatsApp access in its service plans and promotes strongly the unification in its advertisements, pointing out how popular the service is in Latin America, due to its lack of unlimited Messaging packages on any local carriers compared to other countries.
While I don't use WhatsApp in the United States because of the ubiquity of prepaid flat-rate unlimited messaging, became a lifeline indispensable when traveling in Mexico, so I usually end up spending only $ 38 for Iusacell more expensive package for prepaid 3 GB of data and are together for up to a month, if not more.
While I'm sure most of the media is still wondering if $ 19 billion for a messaging app was a good idea, perhaps you could help to do some research and ask around before jumping to conclusions, especially when trying to purchase is sitting right in front of you. If this means important changes is another story entirely, but for now, the purchase price on WhatsApp is claimed by what enables users and carriers also make countries without access to economic data.
Published in vectors, editorials, Videos & Software | Tagged facebook, whatsapp |
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