
Facebook to Add Its Name to Instagram, WhatsApp - juokaz
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/facebook-to-add-its-name-to-instagram-whatsapp?pu=hackernewssmzpp3&utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock
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cardamomo
> But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been frustrated that Facebook
> doesn’t get more credit for the growth of Instagram and WhatsApp.
> Associating those apps with Facebook could improve the overall companies’
> brand with consumers.

Something doesn't quite add up here in my mind. Facebook is the one brand of
the three that stands to benefit from this. Are Instagram's and WhatsApp's
brands strong enough to buoy Facebook's brand?

> While studies show that Facebook’s brand has been tarnished by its many
> privacy scandals, and that users are increasingly becoming more aware of the
> firm’s data collection practices, Instagram and WhatsApp have largely
> remained unscathed. Two 2018 surveys conducted by the privacy-focused search
> engine DuckDuckGo found that more than half of Americans didn’t know
> Facebook owned Instagram or WhatsApp.

Once the word's out, prepare for their reputation to be scathed.

~~~
addicted
FB may deserve credit for growing Instagram.

But WhatsApp growth was entirely on WhatsApp. It had become THE de facto chat
app outside the US well before FB acquired it. And this was despite it being a
paid app at the time (I remember paying a few dollars for lifetime access).

I suspect WhatsApp would have penetrated the US market much like it has now
anyways, because it’s not like FB Has advertised WhatsApp at all. It’s growth
has been nearly entirely organic.

~~~
hocuspocus
> And this was despite it being a paid app at the time (I remember paying a
> few dollars for lifetime access).

In practice Android users would get their free trial period extended
regularly. I'm not sure anyone but iPhone users (who are less price sensitive)
actually paid for Whatsapp.

~~~
belezera
That's correct. Most people I knew really thought Whatsapp was free.

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clay_the_ripper
This seems like a smart move. Facebook is getting ahead of potential criticism
by regulators that it’s unclear that Facebook owns these properties. Of course
we all know that but your average joe probably doesn’t.

It also strengthens its hold on those properties and makes it more part of one
company. Harder to “break up” a company that is deeply intertwined. And its
more clear to users that when they are using Instagram, they are really using
Facebook.

All in all, I don’t get the negativity around this announcement. Makes perfect
sense.

~~~
jonathankoren
> It also strengthens its hold on those properties and makes it more part of
> one company. Harder to “break up” a company that is deeply intertwined

I don't get this logic. I'm old enough to remember when both Instagram and
WhatsApp were independent companies.

~~~
notzuck
"I'm old enough to remember something that happened in very recent history"...
lol

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quocble
I think is bad for instagram and whatsapp credibility. Facebook has the lowest
credibility among the 3 brands. Makes no sense. People literally say i hate
fb, thats why i use instagram. And people say, I hate fb messenger, which
spies on them.

~~~
andrerm
I agree but I think it's good for users

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DevKoala
Is this move ego driven? Instagram and WhatsApp are thriving because they are
disassociated from Facebook. I think this can potentially hurt the other two
apps.

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daybreak
I like these changes. Some of my friends hate Facebook for various reasons,
and making Facebook's ownership very clear (as opposed to buried in some terms
and conditions) may encourage them to choose alternative chat software.

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SimeVidas
I suggest Instaface and WhatsFace

~~~
ggg3
and libra can be facebra.

~~~
e9
more like licebook

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SapporoChris
This is good. I am surprised it wasn't done sooner. I think all products
should have appropriate warning labels.

~~~
youeseh
> But Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also been frustrated that Facebook
> doesn’t get more credit for the growth of Instagram and WhatsApp.
> Associating those apps with Facebook could improve the overall companies’
> brand with consumers.

It is difficult to see how this could improve Instagram and WhatsApp's image
though.

~~~
evanriley
Yea, this comment from Zuckerburg seems strange to me or maybe I completely
misread how people are currently viewing Facebook as a company?

Generally speaking, it seems like the majority of the people are talk to only
have bad things to say about Facebook (the product), and positive things to
say about Facebook's (the company) other products such as Instagram and
WhatsApp. Seems like they would want to keep these brands are separated as
possible.

~~~
amelius
Perhaps they should do it the other way around then. "Facebook, from the
makers of Whatsapp".

~~~
yeahsure
Technically, the makers of Whatsapp had nothing to do with Facebook.

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jamiek88
I guess the borging of those entities is in full swing now.

Golden Handcuff periods ended.

~~~
arkitaip
Good. The sooner both apps die the better. It is ridiculous how shallow and
useless Instagram has become.

~~~
jobigoud
I find useful in the niche I'm interested in, VR artworks. The alternative are
Facebook groups.

I think there are niches where the community isn't garbage. If you aggessively
curate your feed you can get a decent experience.

~~~
esrauch
Any links you can share?

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beilabs
Noticed last night that images for on Instagram are being served from
Facebook's CDN, including the Facebook favicon. I would have thought the smart
thing would be to keep a lot of distance from the three brands.

~~~
jobigoud
Oculus switched to this pattern early on and the content is delivered from
facebook cdn. It must be cost effective to tap into the mothership vast
resources.

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trevyn
They should probably just rename the whole company Instagram instead.

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tantalor
What about Oculus?

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blueboo
Kevin wept.

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Causality1
At least we have warning. Time for me to disable automatic updates for
Whatsapp.

~~~
daveFNbuck
You're ok with Facebook owning Whatsapp, but not with the branding change?

~~~
Causality1
Well I can't change that, and I can't avoid using it since too many people I
know use it exclusively. I can, however, keep from having that filthy Facebook
name on my phone.

~~~
cameronbrown
Although I think this is an overreaction to a branding change, it just goes to
show how toxic the Facebook brand has become.

~~~
Causality1
I mean the same scientists built the V-2 rocket and the Saturn V but I'm glad
they swapped the swastika out for an American flag. Looking at the Facebook
name every time I open Whatsapp would be like looking at Donald Trump's face
every time I select "English" on a website.

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KUcxrAVrtI
Shame I can't short Instagram and WhatsApp.

~~~
addicted
You can buy SNAP. That would be the best play to short IG.

But SNAP is already heavily overpriced because it showed modest growth after
many quarters of declines, thanks to the Baby lens. It’s still continuing to
lose increasing sums of money, so I wouldn’t advise this play at all.

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2bitencryption
wait... there's talk of breaking up tech companies, and a tech company
immediately after decides to prominently brand itself on all its (nearly)
monopolistic empires?

that doesn't seem like smart business to me?

~~~
finkin1
The assumption is that they are attempting to get ahead of any potential
criticism by regulators regarding it being unclear that Facebook owns these
brands. It's probably not a consumer-driven decision.

~~~
rifung
Right but I think the issue would then be that if more people became aware FB
owns all these brands, there might be an even larger voter push to get them to
be broken up, whereas right now people don't know and this care.

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qrbLPHiKpiux
Why? To make people distrust these apps even more?

~~~
stuartd
Oops, thanks for the followup corrections.

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RickS
I'm glad.

I'm tired of dragging my friends around various messaging platforms, but it
needs to happen. This will help.

