19 billion dollars for a company with one app & 20 million
in revenue is of course a frickin’ big deal - No wonder that everyone from entrepreneurs
to VCs to analysts want to have a go at cracking the code called WhatsApp.
Suvir Sujan in his latest
blog post broached this quintessential topic & attributes the success
achieved by WhatsApp to its founders keeping disciplined focus on superior
product offering with an eye towards building a profitable and sustainable
business – True, but I wished to be more direct and say an enterprise that
starts with the intention of selling-off will probably never get this kind of
supreme pay-off, my comment on Suvir’s post is as follows;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WhatsApp indeed pulled-off a
coup and got this eye-popping valuation. While I agree they keeping the product
no-frills helped in making its adoption viral, I'm not sure it'd have helped
the acquisition costs - after all a 19 billion pay-out would cover any quantum
of unreasonable asset stock-pile (bells & whistles..)
In my humble opinion where WhatsApp scored is on how it did not go after the formulaic 'Built to Sell' strategy and instead adhered to it’s probable original idea of 'Built to Solve/ Differentiate' - Let's not forget that most of us got attracted to WhatsApp primarily since it offered what FB mobile chat denied/ couldn’t assure viz., communication & data privacy.
In my humble opinion where WhatsApp scored is on how it did not go after the formulaic 'Built to Sell' strategy and instead adhered to it’s probable original idea of 'Built to Solve/ Differentiate' - Let's not forget that most of us got attracted to WhatsApp primarily since it offered what FB mobile chat denied/ couldn’t assure viz., communication & data privacy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afterthought:
Communication & data privacy, precisely what I’m edgy
about right now as a WhatsApp user - Will this remain intact when FB eventually attempts to integrate the app with its own & monetize the user-base? If I were Zuckerberg, I’d be worried sick thinking how to prevent the edgy half-a-billion junta from waltzing towards
Snapchat & likes - that would be a real bummer, wouldn't it be?
