Case in Point: On WhatsApp and messaging apps
In case you have not heard the latest news about WhatsApp yet, the team have recently released a new feature called document-sharing.
OH WOW.
I am being a little sarcastic of course. WhatsApp has been at the forefront of technology responsible for trying to make the traditional SMS obsolete on smartphones, to the extent that telcos like Singtel has suggested trying to charge customers for its usage.
It should have been the most innovative company in messaging, but disappointing that it doesn’t. I am positive that if not for the network effect it has due to its early first-mover advantage, it could by now have lost the race. Telegram has already launched that feature on iOS, though I still wonder where has the Android version gone to…
The massive network effect is WhatsApp trump card, and that has made all the difference so far.
But Whatsapp, please don’t be complacent. I believe you can do better than this. Be innovative once more.
Over the years, we have seen the rise of many other messaging apps, from LINE, WeChat, Kakao and Telegram for ordinary users lik you and me, to the the new startup gem, Slack that is meant for B2B usage.
Having tried out these apps, I can only say that only Telegram and Slack passed my test. The only reason I am still using WhatsApp is because of the network on it.
Here’s why:
WeChat — To be honest, while many Chinese firms have been accused of being a copycat of Western technology and trends, WeChat is pretty innovative in my opinion. It has released a number of features that makes it unique compared to WhatsApp — it focuses on being an All-In-One rather than being a core communication feature that WhatsApp does, in part due to a difference in general consumer behavior.
WeChat users are mainly Chinese, and therefore require users to understand Chinese as well. Living in a English-speaking or multi-racial country like Singapore with great diversity, language becomes the main issue in the proliferation of WeChat usage. Do I need another app in Chinese to communicate with my friends who can’t understand Chinese?
LINE — I have used it a couple of times, but sadly, I kind of hated using it. You have friends sending you repeated invites for games (just like how irritating CandyCrush invites on Facebook was), a rather memory-heavy app (not sure how much has improved) and of course, much lesser people using it compared to WhatsApp. In comparison, it is more of an English version of WeChat rather than like WhatsApp.
Kakao — I have used it only once or twice that I have forgotten the experience. LOL. Not many users on my network too.
Telegram — The only true competitor to WhatsApp in the normal consumer messaging war. Shortly after it was launched, I have been using it and loving it till now. With speed much faster than WhatsApp, a bigger room capacity for chat groups (it was 200 when launched compared to the puny 50 users WhatsApp allocated then), had a web version (that meant no need to unlock my phone continuously) and document-sharing that makes group communication on projects easier.
Yes, document-sharing. as above, Telegram already launched it in 2015, and diligently rolling out new features like stickers and bots every now and then. Talk about being innovative!
The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, even predicted WhatsApp will roll-out their document sharing eventually, and that was nearly 1.5 years back. See how much WhatsApp has been lagging?
Slack — B2B version for messaging has document-sharing too, but kind of comparing Apples VS Oranges in this context.
So back to the topic…
WhatsApp has been growing healthy in terms of MAUs, and so is Telegram. Yet in terms of updates, Telegram being the later player has been much faster in this aspect.
Right now, WhatsApp is King, but I am not surprised that Telegram will overtake WhatsApp in the long term if WhatsApp remains at this pace. A strong network effect definitely is key, but this competitive advantage will not be forever when growth starts to peak and the market saturates.
One thing for sure — only the most innovative products who can serve consumers best will survive. And who knows, it may even be another product that disrupts the current system. Either start disrupting or get disrupted.
WhatsApp, you should start being afraid.
(P.S.: Articles published by the author on Medium are selected with love from his personal blog.)
