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by eloisant 23 days ago
They spied on their mobile users with the Facebook app to detect Instagram and WhatsApp growth early
2 comments

corporate espionage at global scale to get ahead of existential threats is some pretty insightful leadership, it’s all a matter of what team you’re rooting for.
By the time FB bought WhatsApp it had nearly a billion users. No need for technology conspiracy nonsense.
I guess it's hard to say how much them monitoring their (potential) competitors influenced their decisions but it's definitely _not_ conspiracy nonsense and pretty well documented:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47281906