Whatsapp Marketing

The WhatsApp Business Model – How Does WhatsApp Make Money?

What Is WhatsApp & How Does It Work?

WhatsApp is a messaging application that allows users to communicate with each other via text, audio, and video.WhatsApp can be accessed via its tablet and smartphone apps (available on Android and iOS devices) as well as its web application (called WhatsApp Web).

Users can communicate with each other individually (in private chats) or via groups. WhatsApp’s platform is end-to-end encrypted, meaning that only the users in the chat can read the messages. If users feel like sharing their special moments, they can do so via WhatsApp’s Stories feature. These moments are then displayed for 24 hours.

Apart from its consumer application, WhatsApp has also a communication tool for businesses (named WhatsApp Business). Businesses can:

Set up business profiles with helpful information for their customers (such as an address, email addresses, or a link to their website)
Labeling contacts for better categorization
Automated messages and quick replies
Broadcasts (similar to a newsletter)

The WhatsApp Business tool is geared toward small businesses. If a business has some greater scale, it can opt into using WhatsApp’s Business API. The API endpoint allows them to integrate it into their existing business software.WhatsApp is used by more than 2 billion people in over 180 countries across the globe. As such, it is the world’s largest communication platform.

The History Of WhatsApp

WhatsApp, headquartered in Mountain View, California, was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton.Koum was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, during the 1970s. He spent the transformative years of his childhood in Fastiv, a small town just outside of the Ukrainian capital.Being of Jewish descent, Koum and his family often became the subject of anti-Semitic behavior. On top of that, the Soviet government was notorious for spying on its citizen, leaving the family with no room for privacy to express the predicament they felt being in.

In 1992, at the age of 16, Koum and his mother were allowed to immigrate to the United States where they ended up in Mountain View. Unfortunately, his dad was never allowed to enter the states and eventually died in 1997.The mother-son-duo spent their first few years in a small two-bedroom apartment provided via government assistance. To make ends meet, Koum’s mother took up a babysitting job while Jan worked as a grocery store clerk.A few years later, his mom was diagnosed with cancer and they continued to live off her disability allowance.

By that time, Koum was already head deep into computers. He became a self-taught programmer by purchasing manuals from used bookstores and returning them when he was done reading (to save money).In the mid-1990s, he enrolled himself at San Jose State University to pursue a degree in Computer Science. Koum ended up joining Ernst & Young as a security tester post-graduation. In 1997, EY assigned him to work on Yahoo’s advertising system where he ended up meeting Acton.Acton’s path prior to their meeting couldn’t have been more different.

He was born and raised in Michigan where his mother ran a freight-shipping company, allowing them to live a fairly comfortable life.He ended up doing his Computer Science undergrad at Stanford and then joined Apple as a software engineer. In 1996, Acton became Yahoo’s 44^th employee where he quickly climbed the corporate ladder.The pair hit it off immediately and Acton convinced Koum to apply for a role at Yahoo. 6 months later, Koum joined the internet giant as an infrastructure engineer.

He even dropped out of college (he was still attending San Jose State at the time) to completely focus on Yahoo.Their relationship deepened in the years that followed. When Koum’s mother died of cancer in 2000, Acton immediately offered his support. He’d frequently invite Koum over to his house, on skiing trips, or to ultimate Frisbee matches.While their bond became stronger throughout the years, their dissatisfaction with working at Yahoo grew alongside it.

The majority of their time at Yahoo was spent on releasing Project Panama, the firm’s long-awaited advertising platform.In the end, having worked on an advertising product for almost a decade, both Acton and Koum felt emotionally drained. Their dislike for advertising products should eventually come back to haunt them (but more on that later).In 2007, a year after the launch of Project Panama, both Acton and Koum handed in their resignation. They embarked on a year-long hiatus, traveling around South America and enjoying games of ultimate Frisbee.

Then, around the beginning of 2009, Koum purchased his first-ever iPhone. He immediately realized that the App Store, which had just launched a few months prior, would spawn a whole new generation of businesses that build on top of Apple’s ecosystem.A mutual friend of Koum introduced him to Igor Solomennikov, a Russia-based iOS developer that would help him build the product’s frontend (while Koum was responsible for the backend portion).

A few weeks later, on February 24^th, 2009 (which is also Koum’s birthday), he incorporated WhatsApp Inc. in California. WhatsApp, by the way, is short for “what’s up”, a phrase Koum found befitting for a messaging app.Over the next months, Koum spent hours upon hours programming the app. Unfortunately, a plethora of bugs caused it to continuously crash. At one point, he was even ready to call it quits. Acton’s response was fairly blunt: “You’d be an idiot to quit now,” he stated. “Give it a few more months.”Koum’s perseverance eventually paid off when Apple released push notifications in the summer of 2009.

Each time one of the app’s users changed their status, all of their contacts would get a notification.Eventually, people would start messaging each other through the app – from any place around the world. While this may sound dull in today’s hyper-connected world, WhatsApp’s introduction became a huge revelation and, for the first time, indicated the impact smartphones could have on our lives.At the time, the only free texting application was BlackBerry’s BBM, which was solely accessible to users that owned a BlackBerry device.

User growth started to snowball when Koum released an upgraded version of WhatsApp that included a messaging interface (i.e. chats). Over 250,000 users downloaded the app within a matter of days.To keep up with demand, Koum came to see Acton, who at the time was still unemployed and working on another startup idea, to convince him to join the project. When Acton used the app for the first time, he immediately realized the limitless potential that a messaging platform like WhatsApp could have.A few months later, Acton was able to convince 5 of his former colleagues at Yahoo to invest $250,000 in the startup’s first-ever seed funding round.

The funding round furthermore granted him co-founder status and a significant stake in the company.The money allowed them to hire a few more developers that would build WhatsApp products for the Android’s and BlackBerry’s operating system, respectively. Yet, they remained true to their frugal origins.The team would share a warehouse with Evernote (who’d later take over the whole building and essentially kick them out). They would wear blankets to keep them warm and used the cheapest Ikea furniture for work.What became more abstruse was that the team find it necessary to put up an office sign.

Instead, they’d tell job candidates to get to the Evernote building, walk around the back, find the unmarked door, and simply knock.A bigger problem became the startup’s largest cost pool: SMS verifications. SMS brokers like Click-A-Tell would send the messages on WhatsApp’s behalf and charge them anywhere between $0.02 to $1 depending on location.The team would occasionally change the app’s pricing structure from free to paid (equal to $1) to cover its cost. Yet, despite the fact that they charged users, WhatsApp would rise to become a top 20 app in the U.S. App Store by the beginning of 2011.

WhatsApp’s growth was solely based on word of mouth and the quality of the product they delivered. Deeply affected by their experience at Yahoo, the founders promised themselves to never derail the app with ads or other distractions. To that extent, Koum had a note in front of his desk reminding him of the exact same thing.Being on top of the App Store world and building a high-quality product put the team on the radar of a lot of Silicon Valley investors. Yet, they were rejected right from the start. Acton’s fear, at the time, was that VC funding would lead to lesser decision-making power – and investors would force them to insert ads into the application.

One investor proved to be particularly enduring. Jim Goetz, Partner at Sequoia Capital, tried to get in contact with the founders for well over 8 months – without any success. Eventually, his persisting follow-ups led to a meeting at the Red Rock Café, a famous Mountain View workspace known to be home to many startup founders.Goetz ensured the duo that he’d only act as a strategic advisor and not force them to make any business decisions they weren’t comfortable with.

In the end, Sequoia was able to lead WhatsApp’s Series A round, which netted the company $8 million.The founders made sure to use the money to the best of their ability. By 2013, WhatsApp had over 200 million monthly active users and a staff of 50 people. Sequoia would go on to invest another $50 million via WhatsApp’s Series B, which valued the company at $1.5 billion.Ironically enough, when Goetz signed the check, Acton sent him a screenshot of the firm’s account balance, which was equal to $8.2 million. They simply needed the money ”for insurance”, as Acton recalled.

Being a highly capital efficient company with a rapidly expanding user base does eventually put you on the radar. In the spring of 2012, Koum’s email inbox was hit with the following subject line:“Get together?”The recipient was no one other than Mark Zuckerberg asking the WhatsApp founder to have a chat over dinner. Over the next year, the pair got together for many more of these dinners, discussing the chances of a potential acquisition.In mid-June 2013, when WhatsApp just crossed the 300 million user mark, the founders had a scheduled meeting with Google’s Head of Android Sundar Pichai (who now serves as the company’s CEO).

Pichai would even introduce the pair to then Google CEO and co-founder Larry Page. A few days before that meeting was bound to happen, a WhatsApp employee ran into Amin Zoufonoun, Facebook’s Director of Business Development and one of the brains behind the $1 billion Instagram acquisition.He told him that Acton and Koum were supposed to meet Page in the next few days. Zoufonoun immediately went back to the office to speed up the acquisition process in order to avoid a last-minute counteroffer by Google.

Yet, the founders still attended that Google meeting but actually didn’t even receive an offer from Google.About 2 weeks after that meeting, on February 15^th, 2014, Zuckerberg and Koum inked the deal. Facebook would pay $19 billion to acquire 100 percent of WhatsApp, paying $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stock, and another $3 billion in stock grants if the founders would stay on at Facebook for at least 4 years. The price ended up rising to $22 billion due to the share-based components of the deal.

To make this even more of a Cinderella story, Koum signed the agreement on the doorsteps of his old welfare home in Mountain View.Furthermore, the deal would make Koum and Acton overnight billionaires. Koum would make $6.8 billion after taxes while Acton would pocket $3 billion. Lastly, Sequoia walked away with $3.5 billion, which represented a 60-fold return on the firm’s $58 million investment.Ironically enough, both Acton and Koum applied for roles at Facebook after they left Yahoo but were ultimately rejected. Now, they had not only a seat at the table but access to quasi-infinite resources.

As a result, WhatsApp was able to triple its user base to 1.5 billion within 3 years of the acquisition.On the outside, everything was looking great but the tension between Facebook and WhatsApp executives began to rise soon after.Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, as well as many other Facebook executives started to push WhatsApp’s founding team to ease the end-to-end encryption it became known for.Furthermore, they wanted to include targeted ads within the app, a concept that both Acton and Koum opposed heavily (they even had a clause in their contracts that granted them accelerated payouts if Facebook insisted to include ads).

A few disagreements between the company’s employees also popped up. For instance, Facebook employees issued their dissatisfaction about the fact that WhatApp’s desks, which were brought over from their Mountain View location (WhatsApp moved into Facebook’s headquarters after the acquisition), were larger than the standard desks Facebook employees were equipped with.WhatsApp also negotiated for nicer bathrooms and had conference rooms which permitted Facebook employees from entering.

WhatsApp, on the other end, wasn’t without fault either. When the founders were tasked with replicating Snapchat’s Story feature into WhatsApp, Acton and Koum used that assignment as an excuse to delay exploring other revenue-generating avenues.Eventually, the mounting tension between the 2 camps became irreparable. On September 17^th, 2017, Acton announced he would leave WhatsApp. Koum’s departure came just 7 months after (in April 2018). Due to their premature exit, Acton and Koum gave up $900 million and $400 million in stock compensation, respectively.

To make matters worse, Acton publicly denounced Facebook, criticizing the company on how it handled its user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. He even pushed people to stop using Facebook by publicly supporting the #DeleteFacebook movement.Facebook, that same year, was even slapped with a $122 million fine by the European Union due to providing “incorrect or misleading information” in regards to the acquisition.While all these incidents painted a gloomy picture of how miserable life as a Facebook-owned property can be, it did not seem to affect WhatsApp’s usage growth at all.

Particularly India, with its 1.37 billion inhabitants, became one of the major growth markets.WhatsApp’s popularity among Indians allowed many businesses to flourish by offering products and services to millions of smartphone users via the app’s Business tools. Unfortunately though, just like its mother company, WhatsApp became a breeding ground for spreading fake news.In 2017, 17 men were killed after false rumors of their attempts to kidnap kids from a village spread on the app.

WhatsApp introduced various measures, such as limits on message forwarding and full-page newspaper ads warning about these rumors, to combat the spread of fake news on its platform.In some instances, WhatsApp (albeit unintentionally) even caused political leaders to be ousted. In October 2019, Lebanon’s Prime Minster Saad Hariri, amidst intense public pressure, was forced to resign from his position after proposing a 20 percent tax on the first WhatsApp call users made in a day.And the bad news did not end there. In January 2021, WhatsApp announced that it would roll out a new privacy policy which forced users to share data with its parent company Facebook.

While it turned out to be a misunderstanding (Facebook already gathers WhatsApp data in an encrypted way, so user information remains private), the damage was already done.Many of its users flocked to other messaging platforms, such as Signal (as promoted in a tweet by Elon Musk), Telegram, or Viber. Initially, the company said it would remove users who wouldn’t accept the new terms. However, the company reversed its course days before the supposed go-live on May 15th, 2021.In fact, the company has now doubled down on privacy-related changes and other features that often mimic those of Telegram and such.

For instance, in June, the platform introduced multi-device support, which allows users to message on various devices at the same time. Other features include encrypted video chats as well as disappearing photos and videos (August 2021).Unfortunately, not everyone seemed to believe in WhatsApp’s noble intentions. In September 2021, Irish authorities imposed a €225 million (~$267 million) fine on WhatsApp for failing to tell some users how much data was shared with Facebook.

The fine was the second highest ever issued under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was first introduced back in May 2018.Today, WhatsApp is widely considered to be the world’s largest communication platform. Over 100 billion messages are now being exchanged on the platform – every day. WhatsApp currently employs well over 1,000 people in 6 office locations across 4 countries.

How Does WhatsApp Make Money?

WhatsApp makes money by charging medium and large enterprises for access to its Business API. But before we go into more detail, let’s take a closer look at the firm’s previous monetization efforts.As earlier stated, WhatsApp used to monetize its customers via a subscription model. Users paid $1 per year to be able to use the app. That would be equal to a $2 billion revenue run rate given WhatsApp’s 2 billion user base.In 2016, 2 years after the acquisition, Facebook decided to ditch the $1 fee.

The underlying strategy was to continue focusing on user growth and help WhatsApp become the ubiquitous leader in the messaging space.That also meant ditching any plans to insert ads into the product. Whilst Facebook’s Messenger product does offer in-app advertising, its executives have decided to work with businesses to monetize WhatsApp.In 2018, WhatsApp launched its Business API, which became the first continuous effort to monetize the app post-acquisition.

The B2B tool is free to use for small companies. Meanwhile, larger organizations have to pay whenever they send a reply 24 hours after the initial message was sent. Everything beyond the 24-hour threshold will cost anywhere between $0.05 to $0.90 per replied message.Furthermore, WhatsApp partners up with other companies, such as the cloud communication platform Twilio, to deliver its API.

Future Monetization Channels

In recent times, multiple reports have emerged about new revenue streams that WhatsApp may pursue.WhatsApp has been working on a payment product since 2018. In June 2020, it finally launched a payment service in Brazil that allowed users to pay each other (mirroring Venmo and Zelle) as well as other businesses on the platform.Unfortunately, around 10 days later, Brazil’s central bank suspended the launch, stating that it wanted to “preserve an adequate competitive environment” within its mobile payments industry.

Mastercard and Visa, WhatsApp’s payment partners, were asked to suspend any money transfer within the app.While the failed launch was a tough pill to swallow, it hasn’t stopped the company from pursuing the payment concept.In November 2020, it enabled P2P payments in India, the firm’s largest market by user count. Business payments, in which WhatsApp would receive a portion of the order value, are expected to follow in the next few months. Also, in May 2021, Brazil lifted its payment ban, adding another country to the mix.

For the longest time it had been speculated that Facebook might finally decide to put ads on WhatsApp. Will Cathcart, the Head of WhatsApp, has indicated a more native approach.Instead of advertisements pointing towards a website (like on Messenger), ads would be directed at existing WhatsApp Business accounts that sell products and services a user might need.Another possibility might be ads within WhatsApp’s Story feature. These ads would, in all likeliness, show up in between stories. Businesses would then pay WhatsApp a fee in exchange for being shown on these advertorial placements.

Lastly, it has also been speculated that WhatsApp is set to introduce business directories as well as cashback rewards. With the directory, businesses would pay WhatsApp a fee for being listed or promoted on it while cashback rewards would grant the company a portion of the purchasing price (known as a referral fee).However, due to the firm’s troubled past, it remains very timid with the monetization features it introduces.

WhatsApp Funding, Valuation & Revenue

According to Crunchbase, WhatsApp has raised a total of $60.3 million across 3 rounds of venture capital funding. The company’s only investor throughout its startup time was Sequoia Capital, with partner Jim Goetz leading negotiations.The last time WhatsApp valuation was publicly disclosed occurred during its acquisition by Facebook. The tech giant paid a whopping $19 billion to acquire a 100 percent stake in the company.Facebook has furthermore decided to not disclose any revenue it generates from WhatsApp. Instead, any revenue figures are included in the firm’s overall income figures.

By: Victor

Hi folks, my name is Viktor. A twenty-something year old who all the sudden found himself in the world of blogging.The information you can find on this website is a reflection of my lifelong experiences working in technical account management, consulting, and data analytics. My work has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, Seeking Alpha, Coindesk, BuzzFeed, and hundreds more……

Source: The WhatsApp Business Model – How Does WhatsApp Make Money?

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This Simple WhatsApp Hack Will Hijack Your Account: Here’s What You Must Do Now

Our use of messaging applications has soared through isolation and the information overload that has accompanied the coronavirus pandemic. And no platform has seen a greater surge in messaging than market leader WhatsApp—usage is up more than 40% across the world, and in some markets even more than that.

It is now clear that the unprecedented public health emergency we are living through has also seen a surge in cyber crime. Every imaginable scam, from phishing to malware, and from delivery hijacks to counterfeits, has grown exponentially in recent weeks. It’s a trend that shows no signs of abating.

And so it comes as little surprise that an alarming WhatsApp hack that has been going around for a year is now back and experiencing a new surge. The bad news is that this is stupidly simple for a cyber criminal to execute, and it seems people fall for it in their droves. The good news is that the fix is guaranteed and will take you less than two minutes. I set out how that works below—you need to do it now. Recommended For You-

But, first, let’s look at how this hack works. It’s very simple. When you install WhatsApp on a new phone, the platform asks for the phone number of the account, which you enter, and then it sends an SMS one-time code to that number. That proves you have the number in your possession. Once you enter the right code, the phone starts to receive WhatsApp messages for that account.

With this hack, the attacker uses an already hijacked account to contact a victim’s friends. This doesn’t have to be a WhatsApp account—Facebook would do fine. In their message, the attacker tells the victim’s friend they are having issues receiving a six-digit code, and so had it sent to their friend instead—please send it back. That six-digit code is the WhatsApp verification code for the new victim—by sending it to their friend they are really sending it to the attacker.

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Once done, their own WhatsApp is hijacked. It is as simple as that.

The usual intent of the attack is to use a hijacked WhatsApp account to ask for money, to claim an emergency or an account lock-up, and to ask friends to help out. With WhatsApp, there is no risk that backed up messages can be hijacked, but the attacker will see the groups you are in and the new messages you receive. It is a crude attack, but it has proven exceptionally effective. This is social engineering at its best—we are coded to trust and help out our friends.

The most obvious advice is NEVER to send a six-digit SMS to anyone for any reason. There have been other attacks covering other platforms using the same method. When a code is sent to your phone it relates to your phone. But there is a fix here that will protect your WhatsApp, even if the SMS code was sent onward. This fix will ensure you can’t fall victim to this crime.

The code sent by SMS when you set up your WhatsApp account on a new phone comes directly from WhatsApp itself. The platform sets the code and sends it to you. But there is a totally separate setting in your own WhatsApp application that allows you to set your own six-digit PIN number. There is some confusion because these are both six-digit numbers—but they are entirely separate.

Most people have still not set up this PIN number—the “Two-Step Verification” setting can be accessed under the Settings-Account from within the app. It takes less than a minute to set up. The PIN is for you to select, and even has the option of a backup email address. WhatsApp will ask you for the PIN when you change phones and also every so often when you’re using the app, that’s how secure it is.

As WhatsApp explains, “when you have two-step verification enabled, any attempt to verify your phone number on WhatsApp must be accompanied by the six-digit PIN that you created using this feature.” In other words, the hack will not work.

I first covered this hack back in January, and was amazed at how many people did not use this basic security feature—I suggested to WhatsApp that it needs to be better advertised and I retain that view. WhatsApp is secure and encrypted, but there is no way for the platform to protect users who don’t secure their own app.

In the meantime, if you have been the victim of this hack, reinstall WhatsApp and ask for a fresh activation code. That will reset the app on your phone. It may take some time to work. I have received reports of users not being able to easily restore a hijacked account, although it is just a matter of time. Once you do restore your account, set up a PIN right away. That way, you will not be caught twice. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Zak Doffman

I am the Founder/CEO of Digital Barriers—developing advanced surveillance solutions for defence, national security and counter-terrorism. I write about the intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity, and analyze breaking security and surveillance stories. Contact me at zakd@me.com.

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WhatsApp Users Suddenly Get This Surprise New Boost From Facebook

On the surface, the announcement slipped out by Facebook this week, that a range of new safety measures are being added to Messenger, seems just business as usual. But far from it. There are serious implications in what Facebook is now doing. The announcement is all Messenger, but the context is all WhatsApp. And so this matters for more than 2 billion secure messaging users worldwide.

The update is crucial—both for what it does and for how it does it. According to Facebook, its new update is intended to enhance user security on Messenger—its other platform, the one without all the security bells and whistles. Once deployed, a new monitoring system will detect scams and protect minors.

But that’s not the news. Messenger isn’t encrypted, meaning that monitoring is easily achieved. The real news is that Facebook has designed a surprisingly different approach, one that works on encrypted chats. Facebook says this is to prepare for Messenger’s imminent encryption—but in reality is has larger implications for WhatsApp, the world’s most popular encrypted messaging platform.

Facebook is leading the charge against the push by law enforcement agencies in the U.S., U.K. and elsewhere to weaken end-to-end encryption, to mandate backdoors such that investigations can access content. Before COVID-19 took over the world, this was a major news story and it seemed inevitable that some form of mandated compromise would be forthcoming, that security would be weakened.

A year’s worth of cajoling back and forth has ultimately resulted in the EARN-IT bill wending its way through the U.S. system, a bill that, if passed, would see messaging services become legally responsible for the content on their platforms. While not mandating backdoors, per se, without some form of probes into message content, the argument runs that the punitive risks become unsurvivable.

As Sophos explained, “there’s a bill tiptoeing through the U.S. Congress that could inflict the backdoor virus that law enforcement agencies have been trying to inflict on encryption for years… The choice for tech companies comes down to weakening their own encryption and endangering the privacy and security of all their users, or foregoing protections and potentially facing liability in a wave of lawsuits.”

The debate is complex—the two sides don’t perfectly line up. This was illustrated just a few weeks ago, when the U.S. National Security Agency awarded top-marks to encrypted platforms in an advisory notice on the safest messaging platform.

The encryption debate is just one part of the wave of legislation and regulation in the last year, intended to clean up social media, to remove hatred and extremism, to make these spaces safer for young and old. And so Facebook’s latest move, to help users avoid scams, to spot imposters and, critically, to protect minors from adult abuse, can be seen in this generic light. But it’s more complex than that.

In a blogpost on May 21, Facebook’s Director of Product Management, Messenger Privacy and Safety, Jay Sullivan, set out these Messenger enhancements. Some of these have been available on Android for a couple of months, iOS users will start to see them from next week. He explained that the new safety features “will help millions of people avoid potentially harmful interactions and possible scams without compromising their privacy.”

The measures themselves all seem supremely sensible. Through the analysis of metadata around the chats, who’s messaging who, when, how often, the platform can warn when it might be a scam, or when a user might be impersonating someone known to the recipient. The same analysis can alert to adults messaging children in a pattern that flags as inappropriate.

Messenger is not end-to-end encrypted. While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that this is on the roadmap, it has been delayed. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies and politicians have urged Facebook to withdraw those encryption plans, for fear that this will play into the hands of terrorists, criminals, traffickers and child-abusers hiding their activities from investigations and monitoring activities.

“As we move to end-to-end encryption,” Facebook says, “we are investing in privacy-preserving tools like this to keep people safe without accessing message content.” And that’s the key. Facebook isn’t saying as much, but it’s not difficult to do the math here. “We developed these safety tips with machine learning that looks at behavioral signals,” the tech giant explains. “This ensures that the new features will be available and effective when Messenger is end-to-end encrypted.”

Metadata is a powerful surveillance source in itself. Security agencies collect and mine this data to identify patterns and warning flags. Who talks to who, when and for how often? Who else do they know? Complex relationship networks are drawn from these contact points, identifying criminal, terrorist and pedophile networks, all without accessing the content itself.

Facebook, it seems, is doing several things here. First, it is providing a potential defense against EARN-IT, providing a monitoring system that can adhere to the proposed regulations without breaking message security. Second, it is offering a potential concession to law enforcement. If there is a new collection process for metadata, that could, in theory, be a win for law enforcement without breaking widespread security. And, third, it is sending a clear message that expanding end-to-end encryption is still the plan. The platform’s strategy has not changed.

The company emphasized this last point in its announcement. “We designed this safety feature to work with full encryption,” adding that “people should be able to communicate securely and privately with friends and loved ones without anyone listening to or monitoring their conversations.” Its intent could not be clearer.

More than two billion users exchange an unimaginable volume of end-to-end encrypted messages on WhatsApp each day. And unless an endpoint (phone) is compromised, or those chats are backed-up into accessible cloud platforms, neither owner Facebook nor law enforcement has a copy of those encryption keys.

How effective metadata monitoring will be in establishing malicious behavior—beyond just the superficial—we have yet to find out. But it’s a start. “As Messenger becomes end-to-end encrypted by default,” Facebook says, “we will continue to build innovative features that deliver on safety while leading on privacy.”

What it means is, WhatsApp encryption is here to stay, our stance will not change. Apart from anything else, it has become one of the messaging platform’s USPs—it cannot afford to see its differentiator watered down. As Ian Thorton-Trump CD, CISO for Cyjax, puts it, “having to back-door WhatsApp would kill the app big time, and everyone would move to Signal, Telegram and Wire in record time. “

Of course, with Facebook being Facebook, there is another, more commercial outlet for this type of metadata analysis. If the platform knows who you are, and knows what you do based on its multi-faceted internet tracking tools, then knowing who you talk to and when could be a commercial goldmine. Person A just purchased Object 1 and then chatted to Person B. Try to sell Object 1 to Person B. All of which can be done without any messaging content being accessed.

There is a major difference between metadata analysis on Messenger and WhatsApp, of course. The volume of data that Facebook itself has outweighs the equivalent when you use WhatsApp. Unless of course there is a unique identifier that can tie the two together—like a phone number, for example.

“Facebook is in a tight spot,” Thornton-Trump says, “and it’s really important for folks to understand the truth about the security of the platform and the use of the data it collects.” It’s a fair point—users will not want to see data mining expanding across their WhatsApp metadata. But if that’s the price to maintain encryption, one can assume it will be a relatively easy sell for most users.

Putting platform commercialization to one side, the two take-aways—that Facebook has confirmed Messenger end-to-end encryption is still on the cards and that it is working on security measures that work in tandem with encryption—are both positives for the billions relying on that security.

Security agency frustration at the lack of lawful interception for encrypted messaging is understandable, but the problem with global over-the-top platforms is that once those weaknesses are inbuilt, they become potentially available to bad actors as well as good. And at these times of heightened risks, that would be worrying.

And so for security-conscious WhatsApp users out there—as well as everyone using other end-to-end encrypted platforms like Signal and Wickr, if it’s possible to establish metadata analysis as an alternative to message content analysis and access, this will have been a critical move by Facebook in a quiet sort of way.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Zak Doffman

I am the Founder/CEO of Digital Barriers—developing advanced surveillance solutions for defence, national security and counter-terrorism. I write about the intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity, as well as breaking security and surveillance stories. Contact me at zakd@me.com

Source: https://www.forbes.com

Ambreen Adnan

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WhatsApp Users Beware: This Stupidly Simple New Hack Puts You At Risk—Here’s What You Do

Whether or not Jeff Bezos was hacked over WhatsApp, and whether or not the culprit was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Facebook-owned messaging platform has been compromised by security issues this year. And now there is another WhatsApp attack doing the rounds. But this one has nothing to do with nation state cyberattacks or the platform’s integrity, and everything to do with our susceptibility to social engineering and our complacency when it comes to securing our devices.

This new social-engineering hack is stupidly simple to execute and just as easy to prevent. There’s a basic security setting in WhatsApp that you have likely not set up, but which you should—it takes less than a minute. As soon as you finish reading this article, please check your app’s settings and make the fix if required.

When it comes to the hacking of WhatsApp or other messaging platforms, it is important to separate out the various types of risks. Last year we saw nation-state attacks infecting targeted users with spyware, we saw the a potential risk from crafted media files sent over the platform, and we saw a backdoor where bad actors could lock targeted individuals out of the messaging app.

All of these issues were fixed by WhatsApp—software patches plugged security gaps and ensured users were kept safe. The latest issue, though, was fixed before it even hit. But that fix requires users to take action, which means it’s almost certain that many if not most of you have not yet done so.

This weekend, a friend in a group chat warned the rest of us not to open a message from her—she had been hacked, she said, and we should not “give away any six-digit numbers.” Attackers, it seems, had gained access to her WhatsApp account and captured the phone numbers of members of the group. They were then able to send WhatsApps to the other group members, telling them they were about to receive an SMS message and could they please send it back to her. Social engineering at its best. Who would question the simple request of a trusted friend?

Behind the scenes, though, the SMS message was a WhatsApp verification code for the account of the person receiving the text. And in sending it back to the “friend,” they were sending it to the attackers. With a fresh WhatsApp install, those attackers could then complete an account take over and progress their scam another turn. This is much simpler than porting the SIM to a new device. The effect, though, is the same. This same scam prompted a raft of police warnings in Singapore last summer.

With the account taken over, the attackers could then message the rest of the group as if from the account holder, as well as any other contacts whose WhatsApp messages were received after the take over. No legacy data is compromised. The target device remains untouched. WhatsApp has simply been ghosted onto an illegitimate device.

This can easily be prevented. In WhatsApp you can set up a PIN of your own choosing, and even an email address to use if you forget that PIN. This is separate to the six-digit code that WhatsApp will send by SMS to verify a new install. It’s easy to see the verification code as the two-factor authentication. That can be defeated, as recent headlines on SMS security have shown. Another security layer with your own password is materially harder to beat. So even if you send the code to the attackers, they would still not have your own PIN. Clearly, you should not send the SMS code, but it makes absolute sense to set up this additional security layer anyway.

WhatsApp’s “Two-Step Verification” process can be found under the Settings-Account from within the app. it takes less than a minute to set up.

The direct risk is not to you if you’re attacked, but to your contacts. They can expect to receive requests for data or even emergency funds. Again, social engineering at its best. An end-to-end encrypted platform, a message from a trusted friend. We are coded to have our guards down in these circumstances.

If you have been the victim of this scam, you can clearly reactivate your device with a new SMS and transfer everything back. The attackers are banking on it taking time for you to realise what’s happened and they may even send you additional SMS codes to confuse you as you look to repair the situation.

It is surprising how many people have not yet enabled the PIN in WhatsApp—almost everyone I have asked has yet to set it up. If you’re the same, then please take that minute and set it up now. I know you won’t send that verification SMS to a “friend” if asked, but do it just in case.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Zak Doffman

I am the Founder/CEO of Digital Barriers—developing advanced surveillance solutions for defence, national security and counter-terrorism. I write about the intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity, as well as breaking security and surveillance stories. Contact me at zakd@me.com.

Source: WhatsApp Users Beware: This Stupidly Simple New Hack Puts You At Risk—Here’s What You Do

How WhatsApp Can Add Another $10 Billion To Facebook’s Revenue Almost Overnight

Facebook earned over $60 billion last year. But it could add another $10 billion almost overnight. One of the vastly under-reported story over the last 12 months is the almost unprecedented growth of WhatsApp. I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anything like it in the history of mobile. We’ve seen apps like Pokémon Go blast off from zero to a half a billion installs in mere months. We’ve seen social entertainment platforms like TikTok acquire 614 million new users incredibly quickly.

But have we ever seen already-mature billion-user-plus social platforms gain 760 million new users in a single year? Shockingly, that’s exactly what WhatsApp did in 2019.

I don’t think we’ve seen that before. That makes WhatsApp Facebook’s fastest-growth platform.

And, its greatest opportunity.

Because WhatsApp is almost completely unmonetized right now, according to mobile expert Eric Seufert, who runs MobileDevMemo.

WhatsApp is an incredibly important virgin field for Facebook. It can start selling inventory directly or integrate audience network there and very nearly instantly will into existence billions of dollars worth of revenue per quarter.

Eric Seufert

Facebook’s average revenue per user was over $7 in the company’s most recent financials. While it’s lower in Asia Pacific, where WhatsApp is strongest, an analysis from 2017 suggests that WhatsApp could add between $5 and $10 billion to Facebook revenue.

Image result for amazon GIF advertisements gift card

It’s also before we’ve seen the potential for what WhatsApp might really become: something approaching what WeChat is in China, an uber-app that manages massive portions of people’s commerce as well as communications.

Much of the growth has been fueled by India, and that’s where we see the greatest impact.

WhatsApp is the WeChat of India.

Subhodip Dutta

The Indian “monopoly” factor has driven a lot of WhatsApp’s growth, says entrepreneur Subhodip Dutta. It’s the “epicenter” of marketing, spam, political campaigns, he added … in addition to being the primary place people use to communicate.

WhatsApp is big in India, for sure. But not just in India. My friends in the Caribbean use it significantly. Colleagues on the east coast of the United States have started asking to WhatsApp instead of messaging with Messenger. And it’s big in Africa, with tens of millions of downloads recently in Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries on the continent, according to Apptopia.

Why?

Man using chat message app on smartphone, in response to communication — Getty

“No ads, [and] minimal bandwidth hit makes it popular with professional connections in Africa,” says Jerome Lengkeek, president of Urban Matters and former president of Fourth Watch African Investments. “On the same note, the quality of calls is much better with weak internet connections than Skype.”

So why has Facebook left WhatsApp almost entirely unmonetized, beside some minor efforts to connect businesses and consumers on the platform?

One theory: Facebook is waiting for a rainy day.

When, inevitably, growth stalls in North America and Europe.

“Facebook seems to be waiting strategically to monetize WhatsApp: possibly because it wants to use WhatsApp revenue to buoy its stock price when the Big Blue App and Instagram revenue growth stalls in high-ARPU (average revenue per user) markets again,” says Seufert.

Another theory is that the value is already baked into Facebook’s stock price, and it’s more valuable as a possibility than a reality, Seufert adds.

Group of multicultural friends using smartphone outdoors - People hands addicted by mobile smart phone - Technology concept with connected men and women - Shallow depth of field on vintage filter tone — Getty

Which, of course, gives Facebook more time and less pressure to figure out ways of harvesting golden eggs from WhatsApp without killing the goose. The company just backed off plans to fit ads into WhatsApp, according to recent reports from the Wall Street Journal and The Verge, and that might be a good idea.

One commonality in answers to my queries on WhatsApp?

People really like the lack of ads.

“My mother has old relatives in Pakistan and they all chat together on WhatsApp,” says entrepreneur Miguel Ali. “Before it, other apps did the same, but you were either bombarded with horrific amounts of ads (that slowed down your device) or you had to continually buy ‘credits’ which made it undesirable.”

Which means that Facebook’s plan to not stuff the app with ads is probably good. And that Facebook will redouble its efforts to integrate payments and commerce into communication in WhatsApp.

That might be challenging in India:

India hasn’t yet allowed the most innovative wallet function of WhatsApp there, yet.

Rajesh Johnny

India has a strong technology industry of its own, and isn’t looking to be digitally colonized by American tech giants, as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos learned this past week. And there are local competitors like PhonePe, who are aggressive and well-funded.

Over time, however, you have to think that Facebook will figure out how to turn over a billion users into cash.

It is, after all, what the company is best at.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work here.

John Koetsier

I forecast and analyze trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. I’ve been a journalist, analyst, and corporate executive, and have chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. I built the VB Insight research team at VentureBeat and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In addition, I’ve led technical teams, built social sites and mobile apps, and consulted on mobile, social, and IoT. In 2014, I was named to Folio’s top 100 of the media industry’s “most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.” I live in Vancouver, Canada with my family, where I coach baseball and hockey, though not at the same time.

Source: How WhatsApp Can Add Another $10 Billion To Facebook’s Revenue Almost Overnight

Category: Whatsapp Marketing

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