WEBVTT - What's up, WhatsApp? 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.520 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.120 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.799 and I love all things tech. And you know, back 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:28.639 in little company called Facebook maybe you heard of him, 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:31.760 would hand over the equivalent of more than twenty one 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:38.200 billion with a B dollars to purchase another tech company. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.040 Not only is that a princely sum, but it's actually 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.919 more than what the other company had originally asked for. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.880 The original asking bryce from that company that got acquired 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:55.280 was sixteen billion. That company was WhatsApp, and for old 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.080 fogies like me, this announcement came as a total shock. 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.400 I had even heard of WhatsApp at that time. How 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:08.080 could this company be worth such a staggeringly huge amount 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.399 of money and why would Facebook pay more than what 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:16.400 they were asking for. That's not how negotiation typically goes, 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:19.040 at least as far as I understand it. I am 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:23.200 admittedly not a business type person. Well, in this episode, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.559 we're going to talk about the history of WhatsApp and 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.080 what the app does for the two or three of 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.000 you who don't know, and how things have changed in 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:37.400 the years since Facebook acquired it, because things changed a lot, 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.880 and it's a fascinating story. WhatsApp didn't start out as 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.920 an end to end communication tool build upon a premise 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.880 that the users could send private messages that were secure 0:01:47.960 --> 0:01:51.840 from prying eyes. It started as a much more modest 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.840 tool that would let a user set a status so 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.040 that other users would know if that first person was 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.600 free to chat or whatever. That was the original WhatsApp. 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.000 It was just to say, hey, is it okay if 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.680 I call you right now? Essentially, And I guess that 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.480 takes a bit off the edge over making a phone 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.799 call For the folks who hate doing it. I'm pretty 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.280 much in that boat. And while the story of WhatsApp 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:21.679 is not over, there's been major drama over the last 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:24.680 couple of years, and we will cover that along the way. Anyway, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.960 I'm getting ahead of myself. The story of WhatsApp should 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.680 start with the story of its founders, Yon Coomb and 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.600 Brian Acton, and I'll start off with comb first, as 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.320 his story really tells us all we need to know 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:41.320 about his motivations, both for developing WhatsApp the way he did, 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.320 as well as why he would ultimately leave Facebook in 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.239 two thousand and eighteen, and uh, I guess spoiler alert. 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.919 So Comb was born in the Ukraine in nineteen seventy six. 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:57.160 Back then, the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. 0:02:57.480 --> 0:02:59.880 And you may, oh, my drew gees have forgotten what 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.519 the U S. SR was like. Back in those days. 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:07.840 The authoritarian government was infamous for spying on its own citizens, 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.240 eager to assess out any possible resistance to total government control. 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.800 The KGB, which was the U. S s RS State 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:22.519 Security Force, was justifiably feared throughout the country. Soviet citizens 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.960 were cowed into obedience, and speaking ill of the government, 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:30.720 even in private, was a potentially dangerous activity. The government 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.400 was known to tap phones and to intercept messages, and 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:36.840 the story of how people lived under that kind of 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:40.280 umbrella is part of the reason why folks like me 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:43.880 get a bit upset when we find out organizations like 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.680 the n s A here in the United States were 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.200 combing through phone records with no real checks or balances. 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.320 But let's get back to Comb. Jancomb came from a 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.440 humble home. His father worked in construction management, his mother 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.440 took care of the home. Growing up, he lived in 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.240 a house with no hot water By the time Comb 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.960 was in his teens, things were getting really rough over 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.200 in the Ukraine. There was a growing anti Semitic movement, 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.760 and John's family was Jewish. So Jan and his mother 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.960 immigrated to the United States, moving to Mountain View, California. 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:23.680 His father remained behind, unable to follow his family in 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.920 the United States. Komb's mother earned enough money through babysitting 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:32.120 to make ends meet a little bit in Jan himself 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.719 took a part time job at a grocery store, sweeping 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:38.240 up the aisles. His mother grew ill and so the 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.520 two ended up having to depend upon a disability allowance 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.440 from the government. They relied on food stamps to help 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:49.240 with their grocery purchases. Times were really hard. Comb became 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:53.360 interested in computer programming and computer networks. He would read 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.160 books and teach himself how to hack and code. He 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:00.960 joined hacker communities and he enrolled in San Jose University 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.720 and he got a job with a professional services firm 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.320 called Ernston Young part time gig as a security tester. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.080 In that role, he would visit various companies to test 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:14.800 their networks, probing for vulnerabilities in an effort to shore 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.320 up defenses against the real bad guys out there. One 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.480 of his jobs brought him to the offices of Yahoo, 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.280 and there he met Yahoo employee number forty four, a 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.360 k a. Brian Acton. So let's switch over to him 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:31.880 for a moment, because he would become the other co 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.680 founder of WhatsApp. So Brian Acton had a very different 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.160 background than yon Comb. Acton was born in Michigan in 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.440 nineteen seventy two. That makes him about four years older 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.800 than John Is. But he grew up in Florida. And 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.000 for those folks not in the United States who aren't 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.440 familiar with our geography, Michigan and Florida are pretty darn 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.160 far apart from each other, ones on the north end 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:58.279 of the country, the others on the south end of 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.640 the country. His mother was a businesswoman. She founded her 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.560 own freight forwarding business. Acting credits much of his work 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.040 ethic to his mother, whom he said would work tirelessly 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.479 in an effort to make sure she could make payroll 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:15.400 for her employees during tough times. Acting attended the University 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.919 of Pennsylvania to study engineering, and after a year of 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.479 studying there, he transferred over to Stanford and focused on 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.800 computer science instead. He graduated in nineteen nine and he 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.760 worked for a few big companies like Adobe and Apple 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.480 in various roles, but then ended up working at Yahoo 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.880 in nineteen nine six. That's when he became employee number 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.039 forty four and he worked in the infrastructure team. Yahoo, 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.080 just so you know, had started up as a two 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.320 person project back in ninete, so it's still a very 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.240 young company when act and joined, and it was on 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.080 the rise, just as people began to suspect that there 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:55.080 might be gold in them the our webs. No one 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.360 was totally sure how the Internet was going to generate cash, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.320 like an out of control bit oin minor, but the 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:06.120 general consensus was that the Internet was pretty much going 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.200 to be the future of business, and the web in 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.720 particular was going to take front and center stage in 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:15.120 that regard. Acting and Comb clicked early on. Comb was 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.320 working there as a security contractor, and of course Acting 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.080 was employee number forty four. Both of them had a 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.880 no nonsense approach to communication and feedback. Both of them 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:29.720 would just cut to the chase, not necessarily to be rude, 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:32.920 but to be efficient. Comb would end up getting a 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.640 job offer from Yahoo in early nine seven, and he 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.360 took the job offer he joined the company not long 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:42.520 after his initial visit. He was still attending San Jose 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.760 University at the time when he took the job at Yahoo, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:48.920 but after a server emergency at Yahoo pulled him out 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.880 of class, he ultimately decided he was actually learning more 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.640 on the job and being more useful at Yahoo, and 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:56.600 so he dropped out of school and he worked for 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:59.720 Yahoo full time. And now we can kind of fast 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.000 for word a bit. Because the two men stayed at 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.880 Yahoo for several years as early employees, they benefited from 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.440 earning shares of Yahoo. The company had held its initial 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.280 public offering in nineteen and those shares were growing in 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.640 value year over year. The dot com crash of two 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:19.840 thousand and two thousand one was a really rough time. 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.120 Those those stock prices took a beating. Yahoo weathered the 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.920 storm and came out the other side, but it was brutal. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.520 Before the bubble burst, Yahoo stock was up to more 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:34.680 than four hundred seventy dollars per share before a stock split. 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.559 And a quick side note on what stock splits are. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.720 You can think of a company's value as being the 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.760 number of shares of that company multiplied by the market 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.199 price for those shares. So if I've got a company 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.120 that has one thousand shares held by shareholders, or they're 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.600 on the market or whatever, and the market currently values 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.800 those shares at ten dollars each, then the overall value 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.040 of my company is ten thousand dollars ten dollars per share. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.439 One thousand shares, my company is valued at ten thousand dollars. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.080 That's a very high level way to describe this, but 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.240 it's generally how it works. So in a stock split, 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:17.559 companies will issue more shares of stock, giving each shareholder 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.160 additional shares. So in a two for one stock split, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.200 each shareholder would have the number of shares doubled. However, 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:30.080 the price per share would go down to half. So 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.240 in my example where I said I have a thousand 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:35.360 shares at ten dollars of share, now would be two 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.440 thousand shares, but at five dollars per share. So why 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.080 does the price come down on it's because you can't 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.920 magically make the company be worth more. Remember, the company's 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.840 value is based on the number of shares times the 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.199 market price for those shares, So you can't just drive 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.520 up your company's value by adding more shares at the 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.520 same price as what is currently on the market that 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:04.520 would be insanity. However, all that being said, after the 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:09.280 stock splits, the Yahoo stock was worth about eighteen dollars 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:13.240 per share at its peak, which is still incredible. However, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.120 on the low side, a couple of weeks after September eleven, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:23.200 two thousand one, which exacerbated the already uh struggling dot 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:26.280 com market, the stock price for a yah who share 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:30.320 was down to below ten dollars a share, So that's 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:32.520 like finding your dollar bill is suddenly only worth a 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:37.200 dime or ten cents. Still, Yahoo rebounded, and both Acting 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.680 and Comb were still employees there during this time, so 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.920 while they saw their fortunes totally crumble, they also saw 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:47.880 them slowly build back up again. Now, by this stage, 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:51.120 Comb had tragically lost both his parents. His father had 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.880 passed away in nine having never moved to the United States. 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.640 His mother passed away in two thousand. He and Brian 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:01.520 Acton were friends as all his colleagues. They would hang out, 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.080 they would play frisbee together, and they chatted a lot. 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.960 So Acton's own resolve was being tested while he was 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.640 working at Yahoo. He was put on a project in 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.400 which he was helping build out an advertising strategy, and 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:21.000 Brian Acton does not like advertising. He finds it distasteful, 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.679 and he was discouraged that the only real goal of 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.360 this particular job that he was doing was to convince 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.959 people to buy stuff. By two thousand seven, both Comb 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.360 and Acton felt they had done everything they wanted to 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.600 do at Yahoo and now they were just doing stuff 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.080 in order to have a job. So they decided it 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.280 was time to go, and in the fall of two 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.160 thousand seven both of them resigned from Yahoo, and they 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:46.600 each took time to consider what they should do next. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.280 After about a year, both men had applied to and 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:55.640 been rejected by Facebook. Now, if Facebook had hired one 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.280 or both of them, this story might not have happened 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:01.920 at all. What app may have never been a thing. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.360 But because neither were hired, it's set the stage for 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.880 what would come next. Comb had purchased an iPhone in 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.600 early two thousand nine, and he could see something that 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.839 took other folks a lot longer to notice. The web 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:20.120 experience was inevitably going to move to a mobile platform. 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:23.440 Comb anticipated that people would be relying on devices like 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.760 smartphones a lot more in the future, shifting the focus 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.440 of the web experience from desktops and laptops to mobile 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.960 phones and other mobile devices. And he had an idea 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.800 for an app that he wanted to create, and I 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:38.920 just want to say, like this whole move to the 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:43.880 mobile experience. I remember us looking at that move as 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:47.160 well when we were with how stuff works the website, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.520 because the experience of accessing website on a phone is 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.880 different from the way you would access it on a 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.320 desktop or on a laptop, and it meant that we 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.280 had to really focus on how to optimize is that 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.240 experience so people would still want to come and visit 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.480 the website. It's a real challenge. And Come was already 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.199 ahead of the game. He was seeing that this is 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.120 where things were headed. So his idea was pretty simple. 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:16.040 He thought it would be useful if the address book 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.280 on his smartphone allowed the people on his address book 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:23.000 to set a status. So that way, if he's thinking 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.120 about calling someone, he pulls up the address book, he 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:26.840 looks at their name and he sees the status and 0:13:26.840 --> 0:13:29.480 he sees, oh, that person is busy. You know they're 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:32.320 on a conference call or something. I know not to 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.240 call that person. So the status could let other users 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.800 know if the person is available to text or chat, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:39.800 or if they're in a meeting or going to a 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.400 movie or are otherwise occupied. It could give an alert 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.920 if someone's phone battery had was low. So let's say 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.600 you're looking at your your phone book and you say, oh, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:51.920 I want to call my dad, but my dad's phone 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.120 batteries about to die, so I should probably hold off 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.760 so that he can conserve that battery life in case 0:13:57.760 --> 0:13:59.559 he needs it for something important, and I'll just call 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.160 him later. Or it might even be used to let 0:14:03.200 --> 0:14:06.480 people know if someone's interested in hanging out or grabbing 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.240 dinner or something. You just set a status saying you 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.400 know that you're looking to see if anyone else wants 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.439 to grab a bite to eat. You could do that 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.800 as well. Comb already had a name in mind for this, 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.800 and it was WhatsApp, which itself was a play on 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:24.120 the phrase what's up. The status would tell users at 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.360 a glance what was up with their various contacts, saving 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.000 them time if they see that someone's unavailable to chat 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.440 or whatever. There was reportedly one other name in contention, 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:38.800 which was zapp, but we got WhatsApp on his birthday 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:44.920 February twenty, two thousand nine, Comb Incorporated WhatsApp Incorporated in California. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.840 He still had some cash from his Yahoo days when 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:49.960 he left the company. He left just shy of half 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.760 a million dollars. He was working on the back end 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.240 side of WhatsApp. He was researching regional phone codes and 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:58.280 stuff like that in an effort to build out the 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.240 systems that would actually in able his idea to work. 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:03.920 And he got in touch with an iPhone app developer 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.320 named Igor Slomnikov and they got to work. They spent 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.360 a month trying to get things working properly, and it 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.040 was slow going. For one thing, Comb needed people to 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:17.000 download and install the app, just to test it out 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.400 and to be able to work on these features, and 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.400 there weren't a whole lot of folks available to do 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.480 it within his circle. He got discouraged, and he talked 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.080 with Brian Acton. He said, maybe I should just give 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.480 up on this thing and just walk away. But Acton said, no, no, no, 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.800 you should stick with it, stay with us a bit longer. 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.200 I think you're onto something. In the summer of two 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.960 thousand nine, Apple change things and it made push notifications 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.640 available to app developers, and a push notification in case 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.680 you don't know gives an app the ability to send 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.880 an alert to an end user, even if that user 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:55.640 is not actively engaged in that app. Jan included push 0:15:55.720 --> 0:16:00.840 notifications in his version of WhatsApp. Now, if user change 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.800 their status, it could send out a notification to everyone 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.760 else in that user's address book who also had downloaded 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.080 and installed WhatsApp. So you need both of those things right. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.840 You have to be within the address book of the person, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:16.920 and you also had to have WhatsApp installed on your phone. 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.040 But if you did, then someone could change their status 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.720 to something like I'm washing my hair and it would 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.280 go out to all their WhatsApp friends. So it was 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.280 a way of not just notifying people, but communicating with 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.320 them in a new and interesting way. And then something 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.000 kind of strange happened, and actually I would argue, it's 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:40.120 not that strange, but comb didn't anticipate it. WhatsApp users 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.480 began to leverage the app as a sort of messaging service. 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:48.360 They were communicating through these status updates, which in a 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.800 way is a lot like how Twitter evolved over time. 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.080 And so it's not unusual for people to come up 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.640 with alternative ways to use a tool once they get 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.640 their hands on the tool. You know, the person developing 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.760 it had an idea of how it's going to be used, 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.920 but that doesn't necessarily follow through once people get access 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.560 to it. But a good developer will take note of 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.640 those behaviors and cater to them. A great developer will 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.000 enhance those abilities even further. And Joan was about to 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.760 turn into a great developer. I'll explain more in just 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:29.560 a moment, but first let's take a quick break. What 0:17:29.720 --> 0:17:33.960 Jan had inadvertently done is create a free messaging service. 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.840 And this requires us to think back a little bit. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.120 It's not necessarily as common now, but a decade ago, 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:44.960 it was not unusual for phone companies to charge customers 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:49.440 for text messaging. Some still do. Phone plans varied, however, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.440 Some allowed for a certain number of text messages per month, 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.840 and if you went over that then you would have 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.159 to pay a fee, possibly a small fee per additional 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.639 text message. Others were pay as you go, and a 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:04.000 fee here in the United States could range between ten 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:08.160 to thirty cents per text message. A few plans allowed 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:11.160 for unlimited texts, but you were probably paying a lot 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.080 more for that plan. And then there was the policy 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.800 that to this day I think is a total scam, 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.720 which is that you would get charged for sending out 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.160 too many texts. I kind of understand that. I mean, 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.679 in a way, I think it's kind of you know, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:32.439 stone age policy, but I understand it from a certain perspective. However, 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:36.680 you would also get fees for receiving texts, not reading them, 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:41.119 just receiving them. So how is that fair? How is 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.439 it fair for a carrier to charge you both for 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.480 sending and receiving a text. In fact, if both people 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.200 on a text message conversation, we're using the same phone carrier, 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.160 it was possible for that carrier to collect on both 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.240 the sending and the receiving side of a text message. 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.080 This would be like if you were receiving a letter 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:03.480 in the mail you had to pay for the stamp. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:07.560 They were double dipping for the same communication, charging both parties, 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:10.200 and that's rotten if you ask me. But it gets 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.960 even more expensive if you're trying to communicate with someone 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.240 who happens to be in another country, not here in 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.480 the United States. The average person might not do that 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.400 too frequently. You know a lot of people do, but 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.520 I'd say the vast average of the United States citizens 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:29.639 were communicating within the US. However, in places like the 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.320 European Union, where citizens in an EU country can travel 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.119 freely to other EU countries to work or to study, 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.000 it's not unusual at all to have to communicate with 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:44.240 someone who's in another country. SMS messages, that is, text 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.080 messages are an effective way to communicate succinctly, but those 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:51.080 text fees could get pretty hefty, or at least they were, 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.440 at the very bottom line, a nuisance, and WhatsApp got 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.920 around that messages were sent through the app, not as 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:03.480 SMS messages, So if you connected to WiFi with your smartphone, 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:05.720 you weren't even using out the data on your cell 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.480 phone plan. So you can now send messages for free 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:12.240 through the status updates. You didn't have to worry about 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:15.439 those text fees, and the log in for WhatsApp was 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.000 just your phone number, you didn't need a user name. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:20.359 It was a great work around all on its own. 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.080 People loved it. Like you knew the phone numbers you 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.199 wanted to text, you just did it through WhatsApp and 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.000 you avoided having to do all that nonsense with the 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:33.040 SMS fees. Acting and COMB began to work on fleshing 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.679 out WhatsApps so that it wasn't an ad hoc messaging system, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.879 but rather a purpose built messaging system. Acting also reached 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.800 out to several of his former Yahoo colleagues and he 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.359 raised some investment money to the tune of a quarter 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:50.600 of a million dollars two hundred fifty thousand dollars. He 0:20:50.680 --> 0:20:55.400 officially joined WhatsApp in November two thousand nine. Now WhatsApp 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:59.320 shifted toward being a messaging service. Users could reach out 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.480 to people in their address list who also had the 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.879 app and send text messages over WiFi for free. They 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.840 could send out group messages to contacting a bunch of 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:10.600 people at once instead of one at a time, And 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.000 there was this great double check feature. You would get 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.080 one check when WhatsApp detected that your message had been 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:19.840 received by the other party. You would get another one 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.640 when that message was read. You didn't have to worry 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:24.760 about a message getting lost in the ether. You know, 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:26.879 if you send a text message, the only way you 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.600 know the person actually got it is if they responded. 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.000 This way you could actually see if they got it. 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.399 You could see if they responded, or see if they 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.359 read it, and if they hadn't read it, you would 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.879 be like, hey, what is going on here? You know 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.439 whether or not it made it to the correct destination 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:46.119 to expand beyond the iOS crowd. The co founders reached 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.720 out to a developer named Chris Piper. He was getting 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:52.680 to work on another version of the app, but it 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.360 wasn't for Android because Android hadn't really gained a lot 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.199 of traction yet. It would become an enormous part of 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.439 WhatsApp straight g further down the line, but at this time, 0:22:03.000 --> 0:22:05.679 hardly anyone was running around with an Android phone. I 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.080 mean I was, but I'm a dork. Not many other 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:12.479 people were doing it. Pipher was able to create a 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:16.679 BlackBerry version of WhatsApp because yeah, back then, BlackBerry was 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.080 still a powerhouse in smartphones. You have to remember that 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:23.640 before the iPhone came along in two thousand seven, BlackBerry 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:27.840 was practically the only smartphone game in town. That's an exaggeration, 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.400 but it's not much of one. BlackBerry was pretty much 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.320 it when it came to smartphones pre iPhone. They set 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.240 up a temporary office space and they continued to work 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.920 on the app. Meanwhile, more people were beginning to discover WhatsApp, 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:44.320 and at first it wasn't a money maker at all. 0:22:44.480 --> 0:22:47.840 In fact, it was mostly a drain on Comb's personal resources. 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:52.160 As part of the verification process when signing up new users, 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.439 WhatsApp would send an old school SMS text message to 0:22:56.600 --> 0:23:00.080 that user's phone with the verification, but the come and 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:03.720 he had to pay for this service, And depending upon 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:07.000