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How the HELL did Everpix die? No, seriously. Everpix DOMINATED WhatsApp on every possible metric: social networks/sharing, user commitment, revenue, advertising information, and long-term potential. Anyone can (and will) switch instant messenger networks on a whim. There's literally no barrier to keep me from telling friends to contact me on Hangouts from now on. A photo site tells you where people go, what they do, who they hang out with, how they spend their money, and also requires a huge commitment from users since it's a burden to re-upload photo libraries to other sites. Plus they enjoyed a steady revenue stream of $50/year or whatever, AND they could rely on the diminishing cost of storage and bandwidth over time. To say nothing that Facebook has no photo library feature beyond selected individual uploads (which yield relatively little information about location, habits, friends, etc). They really could have used Everpix. (Or Apple could have finally obtained a usable web service.) But Facebook already has a messenger application. Hell, they have several depending on how you count their properties. What the hell does WhatsApp add to their portfolio, beyond a crappy name and a whimsically unattached user base? I'm just baffled at this point. I guess $20b for Snapchat will be tomorrow's acquisition. Then $50b for AIM, why not. |
Everpix is an instagram competitor--it is a photo sharing app--and should be compared to instagram. BTW, in case you haven't noticed--Facebook bought instagram last year, and even before that it allow users to attach meta data (location, etc.) to their photo uploads.
Whatsapp is a text messaging app, and should be compared to iMessage, Google Talk, Skype, and SMS. In that regards, its clear why WhatsApp succeeded--it was the default messaging app in dozens of countries.
The price is baffling, sure, but the reason that Whatsapp survived and Everpix did not is pretty clear. Whatsapp scaled, and Everpix did not. Text messages take up a few bytes; pictures take up a few megabytes. They could probably fit multiple users' entire messaging histories in the space that a single photo took up. Bandwidth costs--also a fraction of Everpix's. Rent and other fixed costs--definitely a fraction of Everpixs, which chose to situate itself in one of the most expensive locations in the world for a business with minimal revenue.