Zuck says Ads Aren’t The Way To Monetize Messaging, WhatsApp Will Prioritize Growth & Not Subscriptions
Zuck Says Ads Aren’t The Way To Monetize Messaging,
WhatsApp Will Prioritize Growth Not Subscriptions
Facebook won’t be throwing
its advertising weight behind its new acquisition WhatsApp like it did with Instagram. But
WhatsApp also won’t be focusing on rolling out the $1 a year subscription fee
it currently charges in some countries. Instead, with the financial security
Facebook brings, it will dedicate itself to growth.
Monetization was the big topic
on today’s analyst call after Facebook announced it acquired
WhatsApp for a jaw-dropping
total of $19 billion. That’s $4 billion in
cash and $12 billion in stock, and it reserved $3 billion in
restricted stock units to retain the startup’s employees. But Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg, CFO David Ebersman, and WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum all said
that won’t be a priority for the next few years. And when the time does
come to monetize aggressively, it won’t be through ads.
“Our explicit strategy for
the next several years is to focus on growing and connecting everyone in the
world,” Zuckerberg said. Currently, WhatsApp has a strong presence
internationally with 450 million monthly users, but it’s a fragmented market
with many competitors. Outpacing them
right now is critical, Facebook’s CEO explained. ”Once we
get to being a service with 1 billion, 2 billion, 3 billion people, there are
many clear ways that we can monetize.”
Zuckerberg bluntly stated
“I don’t personally think ads are the right way to monetize messaging.” Beyond
WhatsApp, that could mean Facebook doesn’t plan to use ads to monetize its own
Messenger app, either. That makes sense, as the highly personal and intimate
nature of messaging would cause ads to stick out like sore thumbs.
The comments on the call
reiterate a point that Koum has made in the past. In a 2012 blog post, he argued, “Advertising isn’t just the
disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption
of your train of thought” — it also means that companies have to mine user
data. (When asked about the age of WhatsApp’s users on the call, Ebersman
couldn’t say, because the app doesn’t ask for that data.)
Koum made a similar
commitment today in his post about the
acquisition, writing, “You can still count on absolutely no ads
interrupting your communication.”
Top 10 Secret Societies in the World
Top 10 Secret Societies in the World
Through history there have been many secret societies and conspiracy theories about those societies. This is a list of 10 of the most famous and popular secret societies or alleged secret societies.1. Skull and Bones [Wikipedia]
Members of the Skull and Bones (George Bush is left of the clock) [1947]
The Order of Skull and Bones, a Yale University society, was originally known as the Brotherhood of Death. It is one of the oldest student secret societies in the United States. It was founded in 1832 and membership is open to anelite few. The society uses masonic inspired rituals to this day. Members meet every Thursday and Sunday of each week in a building they call the “Tomb”.
According to Judy Schiff, Chief Archivist at the Yale University Library, the names of the members were not kept secret until the 1970s, but the rituals always have been. Both of the Bush presidents were members of the society while studying at Yale, and a number of other members have gone on to great fame and fortune.
The society is surrounded by conspiracy theories; the most popular of which is probably the idea that the CIA was built on members from the group. The CIA released a statement in 2007 (coinciding with the popularity of the film The Good Shepherd) in which it denied that the group was an incubator for the CIA.
2. Freemasons [Wikipedia]
Freemasons Annual Meeting [1992]
The Grand Masonic Lodge was created in 1717 when four small groups of lodges joined together. Membership levels were initially first and second degree, but in the 1750s this was expanded to create the third degree which caused a split in the group. When a person reaches the third degree, they are called a Master Mason.
Masons conduct their regular meetings in a ritualized style. This includes many references to architectural symbols such as the compass and square. They refer to God as “The Great Architect of the Universe”. The three degrees of Masonry are: 1: Entered Apprentice, this makes you a basic member of the group. 2: Fellow Craft, this is an intermediate degree in which you are meant to develop further knowledge of Masonry. 3: Master Mason, this degree is necessary for participating in most masonic activities. Some rites (such as the Scottish rite) list up to 33 degrees of membership.
Masons use signs and handshakes to gain admission to their meetings, as well as to identify themselves to other people who may be Masons. The signs and handshakes often differ from one jurisdiction to another and are often changed or updated. This protects the group from people finding out how to gain admission under false pretenses. Masons also wear stylized clothing based upon the clothing worn by stone masons from the middle ages. The most well known of these is the apron.
In order to become a Mason, you must generally be recommended by a current mason. In some cases you must be recommended three times before you can join. You have to be at least 18 years old and of sound mind. Many religions frown upon membership of the Masons, and the Roman Catholic Church forbids Catholics to join under pain of excommunication.
3. Rosicrucians [Wikipedia]
Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians
The Rosicrucian order is generally believed to have been the idea of a group of German protestants in the 1600s when a series of three documents were published: Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, Confessio Fraternitatis, and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz anno 1459. The documents were so widely read and influential, that the historian Frances Yeats refers to the 17th century as the Rosicrucian Enlightenment. The first document tells the story of a mysterious alchemist (Christian Rosenkreuz) who travelled to various parts of the world gathering secret knowledge. The second document tells of a secret brotherhood of alchemists who were preparing to change the political and intellectual face of Europe. The third document describes the invitation of Christian Rosenkreuz to attend and assist at the “Chemical”wedding of a King and Queen in a castle of Miracles.
Current members of the Rosicrucian Order claim that its origins are far more ancient than these documents. The authors of the documents seemed to strongly favor Lutheranism and include condemnations of the Catholic Church. Rosicrucianism probably had an influence on Masonry and, in fact, the 18th degree of Scottish Rite Masonry is called the Knight of the Rose Croix (red cross).
There are a large number of Rosicrucian groups today – each claiming to be closely tied to the original. Of the two main divisions, one is a mix of Christianity with Rosicrucian principles, and the other is semi-Masonic. The Masonic type tend to also have degrees of membership.
4. Ordo Templis Orientis [Wikipedia]
Crowley with OTO Instruments
The OTO (Order of the Temples of the East) is an organization that was originally modeled on Masonry but, under the leadership of the self-styled “Great Beast” Aleister Crowley, it took on the principles of his religious system called Thelema. Thelema is based around a single law: “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, love is the law, love under the will” [1904]. Membership is based upon degrees of initiation and highly stylized rituals are used. The OTO currently claims over 3,000 members worldwide.
Crowley created a “Mass” for the OTO which is called the Gnostic Mass. Of the “Mass”, Crowley wrote:
“I resolved that my Ritual should celebrate the sublimity of the operation of universal forces without introducing disputable metaphysical theories. I would neither make nor imply any statement about nature which would not be endorsed by the most materialistic man of science. On the surface this may sound difficult; but in practice I found it perfectly simple to combine the most rigidly rational conceptions of phenomena with the most exalted and enthusiastic celebration of their sublimity.”
The ritual is very stylized and uses virgin priestesses, children, and priests. Many Ancient Egyptian God’s are invoked, as well as the Devil, and at one point the priestess performs a naked ritual.
5. Hermetic Order of The Golden Dawn [Wikipedia]
Golden Dawn Symbolism
The order of the Golden Dawn was created by Dr. William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. All three were Freemasons and members of Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (an organization with ties to Masonry). It is considered by many to be a forerunner of the Ordo Templi Orientis and a majority of modern Occultgroups.
The belief system of the Golden Dawn is largely taken from Christian mysticism, Qabalah, Hermeticism, the religion of Ancient Egypt, Freemasonry,Alchemy, Theosophy, Magic, and Renaissance writings. William Yeats, and Aleister Crowly are two of the more famous members of the group.
The fundamental documents of the order are known as the CipherDocuments. These were translated into English using a cipher attributed to Johannes Trithemius. The documents are a series of 60 folios containingmagic rituals. The basic structure of many of these rituals appear to originate with Rosicrucianism. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the origins of these documents.
6. The Knights Templar [Wikipedia]
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The Knights Templar (full name: The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta) is a modern off-shoot of Masonry and does not have a direct tie to the original Knights Templar – a religious military group formed in the 12th century. Members of the Masonic Knights Templar do not claim a direct connection to the medieval group, but merely a borrowing of ideas and symbols.
In order to become a member of this group, you must already be a Christian Master Mason. This organization is a distinct one, and is not just a higher degree of Masonry. Despite Freemasonry’s general disclaimer that no one Masonic organization claims a direct heritage to the medieval Knights Templar, certain degrees and orders are obviously patterned after the medieval Order. These are best described as “commemorative orders” or degrees. Nevertheless, in spite of the fraternity’s official disclaimers, some Masons, non-Masons, and even anti-Masons insist that certain Masonic rites or degrees originally had direct Templar influence.
7. The Illuminati [Wikipedia]
The Pyramid, an illuminati symbol
A movement of freethinkers that were the most radical offshoot of TheEnlightenment — whose followers were given the name Illuminati (but who called themselves “Perfectibilists”) — was founded on May 1, 1776 in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt. This group is now known as the Bavarian Illuminati. While it was not legally allowed to operate, many influential intellectuals and progressive politicians counted themselves as members. Even though there were some known Freemasonsin the membership, it was not considered to be endorsed by Masonry. The fact that the Illuminati did not require a belief in a supreme being made them particularly popular amongst atheists. This, and the fact that most members were humanists, is the reason for the widespread belief that the Illuminati wants to overthrow organized religion.
Internal panic over the succession of a new leader, and government attempts to outlaw the group saw to it collapsing entirely in the late 1700s. Despite this, conspiracy theorists such as David Icke and Was Penre, have argued that the Bavarian Illuminati survived, possibly to this day, though very little reliable evidence can be found to support the idea that Weishaupt’s group survived into the 19th century. It has even been suggested that the Skull and Bones club is an American branch of the Illuminati.
Many people believe that the Illuminati is still operating and managing the main actions of the governments of the world. It is believed that they wish to create a One World Government based on humanist and atheist principles.
8. The Bilderberg Group [Wikipedia]
This group is slightly different from the others in that it does not have anofficial membership. It is the name given to a group of highly influentialpeople who meet ever year in secrecy (and usually with strong military and government sponsored security). The topics discussed are kept secret. The structure of the meetings is that of a conference – usually held in five star hotels around the world. Attendance at the meeting is strictly by invitationonly. The first meeting took place in 1954 at the Hotel Bilderberg in the Netherlands.
The original meeting was initiated by several people. Polish emigre and political adviser, Joseph Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting understanding between the cultures of The United States of America and Western Europe.
Although the agenda and list of participants are openly available to the public, it is not clear that such details are disclosed by the group itself. Also, the contents of the meetings are kept secret and attendees pledge not to divulge what was discussed. The group’s stated justification for secrecy is that it enables people to speak freely without the need to carefully consider how every word might be interpreted by the mass media.
Needless to say, this group is constantly surrounded by controversy and conspiracy theories.
9. The Priory of Sion [Wikipedia]
Logo of the Priori of Sion
After the publication of the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, a great deal of interest in the Priory of Sion has been created. Unfortunately for those hoping to find and join the Priory, it is, in fact, fictional. It was a hoax created in 1956 by a pretender to the French Throne, Pierre Plantard. Letters in existence dating from the 1960s written by Plantard, de Cherisey and de Sède to each other confirm that the three were engaging in an out-and-out confidence trick, describing schemes on how to combat criticisms of their various allegations and how they would make up new allegations to try to keep the whole thing going. Despite this, many people still continue tobelieve that the Priory exists and functions to this day.
The authors of the well known book, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, misled by the hoax, stated:
1. The Priory of Sion has a long history starting in AD 1099, and had illustrious Grand Masters including Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.
2. The order protects certain royal claimants because they believe them to be the literal descendants of Jesus and his alleged wife Mary Magdalene or, at the very least, of king David.
3. The priory seeks the founding of a “Holy European Empire” that would become the next hyperpower and usher in a new world order of peace and prosperity.
2. The order protects certain royal claimants because they believe them to be the literal descendants of Jesus and his alleged wife Mary Magdalene or, at the very least, of king David.
3. The priory seeks the founding of a “Holy European Empire” that would become the next hyperpower and usher in a new world order of peace and prosperity.
10. Opus Dei [Wikipedia]
Ordination of Opus Dei Priests
Opus Dei is an organization of the Catholic Church that emphasizes the Catholic belief that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The celibate numeraries and numerary assistants live in special centers, while associates are celibate members living in their private homes. The order was founded in Spain in 1928 by Roman Catholic priest JosemarÃa Escrivá with the approval of Pope Pius XII.
When Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code was published, it claimed that Opus Dei was a secret organization within the Church whose aim was to defeat the Priory of Sion and those who seek to uncover the “truth” about Christianity and the alleged royal bloodline of Christ. Outside of the book, there has been a great deal of controversy over Opus Dei because of the strictness of its religious structure.
The Catholic Church forbids secret societies and membership in them, and Opus Dei investigators have frequently debunked claims that this organization is acting in secrecy to further a sinister agenda.
Thanks for Reading!!!
Apple Releases Updates for iOS 7, iOS 6
Apple Releases Updates for iOS 7, iOS 6
Apple released updates for iOS 7 and iOS 6 users on Friday. The iOS 7.0.6 update is a security update that the company says "provides a fix for SSL connection verification."
This is a small update, clocking in at just 35MB on a Verizon iPhone 5S. Apple also released an update for iOS 6 users on the iPhone 3GS and fourth-generation iPod touch. iOS 6.1.6 reportedly offers a number of bug fixes.
Apple is expected to release iOS 7.1 soon, perhaps as soon as early March, which will address a number of lingering iOS 7 niggles, including the ever-present soft-reboot issue (we're calling it the black/white screen of death).
Courtesy: Mashable
WhatsApp’s gone to Facebook for $19 Billion
WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire
He left Yahoo in 2007 with one of the company’s other engineers, Brian Acton, and started a company by 2009 that shuns advertising altogether. The strategy allowed them to concentrate on creating an easy-to-use messaging product instead of developing new ways to glean customer information for their marketing pitches, Koum said in a 2012 blog post.
“No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow,” Koum said in the post. A hand-written note on the his desk reads: “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!”
Their approach paid off. WhatsApp amassed 450 million monthly users -- twice as many as Twitter Inc. -- who send billions of messages a day. Yesterday, Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg bought their five-year-old company in the largest Internet deal since Time Warner’s $124 billion merger with AOL in 2001, a deal that will almost certainly make Koum and Acton billionaires several times over.
For Koum, 38, the windfall would stand in stark contrast to his years as a teenager, when his family relied on food stamps after emigrating from Ukraine. The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor.
‘Contrarian Approach’
WhatsApp doesn’t collect information like name, gender, address or age. Instead, users are approved after their phone numbers are authenticated.“It’s a decidedly contrarian approach shaped by Jan’s experience growing up in a communist country with a secret police,” said Goetz in a blog post yesterday on Sequoia’s website. “Jan’s childhood made him appreciate communication that was not bugged or taped.”
Courtesy: Bloomberg
Neobux - Probux - Earn on Strategy (Without Investment)
1. Choose a time of day that you can click ads and eventually manage your referrals at the same time everyday.
2. Click all available ads everyday (when you get referrals this is necessary to earn from referral clicks).
3. Utilize all free methods of advertising to gain any direct referrals. Talk it up with your friends and relatives. Put a tagline on your e-mail signature. Post in forums. Use free traffic exchanges.
4. Once your account balance reaches $1. Transfer this money to your rental balance and rent 3 referrals. It is only $0.60 to rent the referrals but you will need the remainder to properly manage the referrals.
5. Put the auto pay function on.
6. If a referral of yours has not clicked today or yesterday and has click average of less than 2.0 then recycle it ($0.07) and get a new referral. If they have a click average of between 2.0 and 4.0, I will give them 4 days before I recycle them. I will give those with an average of over 4.0 seven days to return and click just because I would hate to recycle a great referral just because they were on vacation for a week.
7. Whenever, one of your referrals goes below 20 days before next payment pay to add another 30 days. Below 20 days, the auto pay function does not work and you will not get the savings for that referral.
8. Every time your account balance reaches $.10 transfer the money to your rental balance. At first when you are only making a couple of cents per day it is important to keep enough in your rental balance to maintain your recycling activity because you can only transfer in $.10 increments. Once you can complete this transfer and have at least $1.40 in your rental balance rent another 3 referrals.
9. Continue this process until you are making a $1 a day in your account balance. At this point you can begin renting in bigger chunks of referrals every 7 days. Never rent a number of referrals that is greater than 33% of your existing totals as these will become difficult to manage through recycling with your earnings.
10. It will take a while but continue the above listed process until you reach 500 referrals. At this point stop renting and just maintain your referrals. Accumulate the earnings until you can pay for the upgrade to golden.
11. Once golden, maintain your referrals as before. Every week continue to rent referrals until you hit the 2000 refs mark. Any money that you are not sinking into referral maintenance or renting is profit for you.
Neobux - Probux - Earn on Strategy (Putting a small amount as investment)
Week 1 - Rent 100 referrals, you will need to have a Paypal account to pay. Neobux charges $25/month（$6.25/week) for 100 rented referrals. Although you can start FREE to accumulate your earning to rent referrals, putting a small amount of money will accelerate the process a lot, and your earning will be much more than your investment pretty soon. Statistically, the number of clicks for a referral is 1.5 per day, so
Week 1 Earning =100*1.5*7*$0.01 (ref clicks) + 4*7*0.01 (self clicks)=$10.8
Cost = $25 (rent 100 referrals)
Week 2 - Rent another 100 Referrals, so
Week 2 Earning = 200*1.5*7*$0.01 (ref clicks) + 4*7*0.01 (self clicks) = $21.3
Cost = $25 (rent 100 referrals) + $11.3 (referral renewal) + 1.6 (recycling) = $37.9
Notes：
(1). You can only register as Standard Membership for the first couple of weeks, and the earning is $0.005/click for referrals (We simplified the calculating here using $0.01 for the first two weeks).
(2). Neobux has a "Auto pay" feature for rent referral renewal with 10% discount and assume 25% of the referrals will be renewed. i.e., so weekly renewal cost = 200*25%($25/100)*0.9=$11.3
(3) Assume 10% recycling rate, i.e., 10% of referrals will be recycled each week, the recyling cost = 200*10%*0.08= $1.6
Week 3 - Rent another 100 Referrals, and upgrade to Golden Membership for $90 per year. This is highly recommended because you will earn $0.01
per click for your referrals to double your earning. So,
Week 3 Earning = 300*1.5*7*$0.01 (ref clicks) + 10*7*0.01 (self clicks) = $32.2
Cost = $25 (rent new 100 referrals) + $16.9 (rent renewal) +$2.4 (recycling) +$90 (membership)=$134.3
In the following weeks, you repeat the same thing adding 100 referrals every week. You can reinvest the earning to rent referrals. Of course, you need to spend 10-20 minutes a day to click a few Ads, otherwise the earnings from referrals will not be credited to your account. A piece of cake. You can refer to the table and figure above for the earning and cost for each weeks. Please also note that you will need around $150 initial investment to get
started to accelerate the earning.
Week 20 - By now, you should have reached the 2000 referrals limit by reinvesting what you have earned to rent more referrals every week.
Week 20 Earning = 2000*1.5*7*0.01 (Refs clicks) + 10*7*0.01 (Self Clicks) =$210.7
Cost = $25 (rent new 100 referrals) + $112.5 (rent renewal) +$16 (recycling)=$153.5
Profit = $210.7 - $153.5 = $57.2
From this point on, the earning and cost will be stabilized, because you have reached the 2000 rented referrals limit. Since you can't buy new referrals any more, your cost will be only for referral renewal and recycling, which is $112.5 (rent renewal) +$16 (recycling)= $128.5. Your earning will still be $210.7 per week (same as week 20). Therefore, your weekly profit becomes $210.7 - $128.5 = $82.2 per week, or $356 per month! That doesn't sound too bad, right?
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