I'm surprised this discussion didn't come up when FB acquired Whatsapp. IMHO, ze... | Hacker News

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		lquist on Jan 7, 2015 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Exempting popular apps from data charges is anti-c... I'm surprised this discussion didn't come up when FB acquired Whatsapp. IMHO, zero rating explains a significant chunk of Whatsapp's $19B price tag. Zero Rating is a valuable moat, and makes Whatsapp that much harder to unseat by rival apps. Also zero rating is particularly common in the countries that Whatsapp dominates.

shkkmo on Jan 7, 2015 [–]

Facebook is also one of the principle sponsers of the push to bring zero rating to "the 2/3rds of the world that don't have internet":

https://www.internet.org/press/introducing-the-internet-dot-...

I believe some of internet.org's strategies are good. I'd be a lot less skeptical if 'facebook' weren't on that list of 'basic apps'

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