Signal Messenger boss who was predicted to be able to take WhatsApp customers finally gave a statement. Signal Foundation Chairman Brian Acton believes Signal Messenger will not be able to replace WhatsApp due to the new privacy policy that has just been released.
Acton believes that these two applications will complement each other because they have different purposes. Not a substitute, but users will use both of them for different conversations.
“I don’t want to do all the things on WhatsApp,” Acton quoted Business Insider as saying, Thursday (14/1/2021).
He predicts Signal will be used to communicate with family and close friends. While conversations with other people are carried out via WhatsApp.
Brian Acton did not deny that this change made many people move to Signal. The platform’s name had suddenly skyrocketed some time back.
The Number of Signal Users Reaches 7.5 Million in 5 Days
Sensor Tower reports state the number of Signal installations reached 7.5 million times on the App Store and Play Store from January 6-10. The increase in downloads reached 4,200% from the previous week.
“Small changes help trigger big results,” said Brian Acton.
For information only, WhatsApp was founded by Brian Acton and Jam Kaum in 2009. Five years later, in 2014 to be precise, this application was acquired by Facebook for US $ 22 billion.
In 2017 Brian Acton decided to leave Facebook. The root of the problem is that he doesn’t agree with Facebook’s plan to make money (monetization) from WhatsApp. He hopes that WhatsApp monetization through subscription fees while Facebook wants targeted advertising.
In 2018 Brian Acton injected US $ 50 million into Signal Messenger and became chairman of the Signal Foundation, the parent of Signal Messenger. The plan is for Signal to collect money from users through a donation or donation mechanism.
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