Surprising WhatsApp, WeChat moves in SA

Oh guys, you really need to start reporting with more accurate headlines. There have been a few "astonishingly" dreadful headlines of late.

Please stop with the emotive language for the sake of driving clicks.

Nothing about this is "astonishing". It is rather banal, if anything...
 
DJ... said:
Oh guys, you really need to start reporting with more accurate headlines. There have been a few "astonishingly" dreadful headlines of late.

Please stop with the emotive language for the sake of driving clicks.

Nothing about this is "astonishing". It is rather banal, if anything...
Click to expand...

It is surprising that you are responding to this astonishing news in this manner. I personally found it positively shocking.

A few of us discussed this click bait headlining on mybb on a thread a while back, only to be told that its apparently normal. "Surprising" and "Shocking" news very common here.
 
DJ... said:
Oh guys, you really need to start reporting with more accurate headlines. There have been a few "astonishingly" dreadful headlines of late.
Click to expand...

It's a tricky thing to signal to readers when an article contains something relatively significant. Emotive language seems to be one way that works. Also: you don't find the fact that WhatsApp is probably around double the size of Mxit remotely surprising?
 
How can this be "astonishing" if we've had many articles lately all about the IM numbers?
 
Mindblowingly exceptional point you make there, Imran. Let's hope that the incredibly spurious headlines take a cessation from publication...
 
Jan said:
It's a tricky thing to signal to readers when an article contains something relatively significant. Emotive language seems to be one way that works. Also: you don't find the fact that WhatsApp is probably around double the size of Mxit remotely surprising?
Click to expand...

1) Your journalistic integrity comes into question when you intentionally (which is what you just admitted) attempt to drive clicks through emotive language for no reason other than the author of the topic believing it to be so damn important.
2) There is nothing astonishing about this story. Your headline used the word 'astonishing'.
3) No, I don't find it surprising in the least little bit that the largest IM client in the world has double the customer base of a minor, niche player in the local market whose popularity has been dwindling for many years now, and whose only subscriber base is made up of poor teenagers and paedophiles.
4) Astonishing stories typically result in a visceral reaction from the reader. You must be an incredibly...wait, no...astonishingly good charades player if you can pull off visceral...
 
Uhm.. If you don't see whatsapp on the persons number they've given you their voice/business number. Typical assumption ahead of, -gasp- they don't use whatsapp lol
 
I would like to see those stats after BBM launch on Samsung Android phones and iOS. I believe we will initially just see a lot of BBM users just swop their hardware to other platforms but after a while we should see a sharp increase as more people start returning to BBM.

But gone are the days where users make exclusive use of a IM platform so it should not dilute the other IM stats.
 
krycor said:
Uhm.. If you don't see whatsapp on the persons number they've given you their voice/business number. Typical assumption ahead of, -gasp- they don't use whatsapp lol
Click to expand...

LOL - I've never used Whatsapp for anything more than just testing it. Don't like its lack of security.
 
DJ... said:
1) Your journalistic integrity comes into question when you intentionally (which is what you just admitted) attempt to drive clicks through emotive language for no reason other than the author of the topic believing it to be so damn important.
Click to expand...

Hang on, so a newsroom (or journalist) making an editorial call on whether a story is important or not is ethically questionable? If you have a problem with ethically questionable news (by that definition) you should probably give up on any and all news outlets then. You're also basing your conclusion on a faulty assumption. I, as the author of this piece, do not simply blindly believe that it is important and based on that decide to signal it as such.

Surely you can't reasonably say that this isn't a big story in the context of what we thought we knew based on the known statistics out there?

To date what we knew for sure was that Facebook had only this year overtaken Mxit in user numbers in South Africa.

DJ... said:
2) There is nothing astonishing about this story. Your headline used the word 'astonishing'.
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Nothing that astonished you perhaps. The headline wasn't chosen lightly. When I shared the punchline of this story with others, that WhatsApp probably has around 15-million South African users, the first reaction was surprise or astonishment.

You realise that this probably exceeds the number of smartphones in the country?

DJ... said:
3) No, I don't find it surprising in the least little bit that the largest IM client in the world has double the customer base of a minor, niche player in the local market whose popularity has been dwindling for many years now, and whose only subscriber base is made up of poor teenagers and paedophiles.
Click to expand...

[citation needed]

Here let me help you:

* According to Mxit its South African active user numbers have actually increased YoY.

* Facebook has reported over a billion active users globally, while WhatsApp has reported a paltry (by comparison) 300-million, yet WhatsApp's userbase probably exceeds Facebook's in SA.
 
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Headlines are based on how the reader would interpret the story. Anything else is disingenuous. Hell, let's just call them all astonishing.

Too late and on cell so can't multi quote, but this story is in no way astonishing. In any way. I wouldn't have said anything if it wasn't for the fact that over the last few weeks, this sort of nonsense headlining has become more and more prevalent.

So be it though. If you feel this story warrants the headline 'astonishing'then go for it. You're not doing yourself any favours by doing so and it is a transparent click generating tactic that few people care for...
 
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I would not discount the Chinese (no pun intended). They are not fickle like their western counterparts,very patient and willing to take a very long term view on capturing the market. 3 years is but a blink to them ,and am sure their strategic planning spans decades.

For example, look at huawei and zte on the consumer market,they could have jumped in a long time ago, they have manufactured 3g modems and switching equipment for years already so much so that they supply cellphone providers the world over. Only in like recent years,they have started targeting consumers directly and are making fantastic inroads in that market too (watch this space).

Wechat is here to stay,and can only grow.
 
tsume said:
I tried WeChat for minute, its like a mash of WhatsApp & Facebook into one. It can also be used as a hook up app like Tinder/Grindr
Click to expand...

The fastest uninstall for me, tries to do too much with social networking nonsense built in. Am old school,don't like sharing my life with the world but recognise that a large part of the world loves doing just that
 
tsume said:
I tried WeChat for minute, its like a mash of WhatsApp & Facebook into one. It can also be used as a hook up app like Tinder/Grindr
Click to expand...

I would never try it because the adverts for it on TV are so rubbish.
 
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If you exclude Blackberry Users, people who use whatsapp are double that of BBM users.
 
Does Mxit work on BBM, iOS and android?
I've never seen it make the top 10 list on any of the said stores.

No surprises on the whatsapp numbers, majority of my phone book have whatsapp.
 
Outlaw said:
Does Mxit work on BBM, iOS and android?
I've never seen it make the top 10 list on any of the said stores.

No surprises on the whatsapp numbers, majority of my phone book have whatsapp.
Click to expand...
It was in the top 5 in Google Play until fairly recently when began it's rapid fall
 
* surprised, astonished and baited *

/notes ****ty head lines :p


Anyways... not too surprising since in RSA we are overcharged for everything. Everyone wants their own Nkandla.
 
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