Numbers That Explain Why Facebook Acquired WhatsApp
So I understand the value of WhatsApp now that the network is absolutely enormous, but can anyone shed some light on how WhatsApp differentiated itself at first?It seems like it's just basic user-to-user messaging over data, with a list-like interface that looks like every messaging app on my phone.  How did they convince people that this particular proprietary solution was the best?  Did they somehow remove friction in getting your friends to join?  I feel like using Google Hangouts or any other proprietary messaging service is the same... I must be missing something.