10 statements across 8 episodes · 1 bullish · 3 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Nov 9, 2020 by Benedict Evans · said 59 times in 24 episodes since 2020 · across every show →
Mentions by year
brought up most by Benedict Evans (54), Toni Cowan-Brown (4), Bernadette Kevins (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2022 19 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2021 17 mentions in 10 episodes 2 per episode
2020 21 mentions in 4 episodes 5 per episode
Everything said about WhatsApp, oldest first
Nov 9, 2020 neutral
Evans: Online harms stem from total connectivity, not algorithms or ads
“A couple of years ago, there was this whole thing in India of lynch mobs forming based on wild rumors that were spreading on WhatsApp, which was super interesting because WhatsApp is not, doesn't have an algorithm and doesn't have advertising. And so like thos…”
Dec 13, 2020 neutral
Evans: Facebook would engage in the same practices without Instagram or WhatsApp
“Supposing WhatsApp didn't happen, supposing Instagram hadn't happened, supposing they'd happened and failed, supposing they'd happened, gotten bought by Fox, rolled into MySpace and killed. And so Facebook was the only thing. And Facebook would be doing all th…”
Dec 13, 2020 negative
Evans: FTC knew Instagram was a competitive threat when approving acquisition
“The FTC basically knew everything that they knew, know, that they know now. They knew that these were competitive. They knew that Facebook must see them as competitive threats. Nothing's actually changed, except that the FTC has just changed their mind. And I …”
Dec 13, 2020 negative
Evans: WhatsApp proves harmful content is not caused by ads or algorithms
“WhatsApp doesn't have an ad model. WhatsApp has massive problems with harmful content. They have massive problems with rumors in India, for example, and people forming mobs and killing each other based on rumors on WhatsApp. They don't have advertising. They d…”
Aug 15, 2021 neutral
Nov 2, 2021 neutral
Evans: Facebook bought WhatsApp primarily to keep it from competitors
“WhatsApp is this sort of weird thing off by its side that isn't really part of, certainly not part of the US conversation, and doesn't have an ad business, and so it's a slightly weird thing that they bought to stop someone else getting it.”
Aug 1, 2022 bullish
Sep 5, 2022 neutral
Evans: Streaming platform scale is driven by content budget, not network effects
“The challenge is like, there's no network effect there. It's a budget effect. It's not like Facebook where everyone, it's not that, it's not like Facebook where everyone has to use WhatsApp because everyone's on WhatsApp.”
Sep 19, 2022 neutral
Evans: Founders wanting autonomy shouldn't take $20 billion acquisitions
“Yeah, you're going to reach a point where, like, if you didn't want to be part of Adobe, then you shouldn't have taken the fucking twenty billion dollars. Which was always the problem with WhatsApp. Like, and yes, there were all sorts of things about broken pr…”