Know when you can start exploiting your users

WhatsApp is a good example of two things:

1. If the leadership only wants to make money, they’ll allow all sorts of spam into their platform as long as the spammers pay them.
2. A product that needs network effects to succeed can become scummy and still remain dominant for a long time.

As a policy, I don’t block anyone on any social media. Blocking is burning bridges, and I don’t like doing that. But I make one exception: spammers on WhatsApp. Many of these spammers even have the “verified business” badge. While WhatsApp has turned into a cesspool of spam, I suppose Meta is happy to let the spam stay as long as spammers keep paying the “access fee”.

A few spammers I have blocked on WhatsApp

Some takeaways from this:

• If you know that you have leverage, you can use it to extract value. WhatsApp is dominant in India and no one even comes close. They are exploiting that advantage to make money. (What WhatsApp and Meta do here is immoral in my opinion, but maybe they don’t see this as immoral. Or maybe extracting revenue is higher on their priority list.)
• Be aware whether you do or don’t have leverage. If WhatsApp had started doing this too soon, that would have been like killing the golden goose. They waited long enough before letting all spammers in. Users don’t want to move away, and stay hooked. (Anyone remember the few “WhatsApp boycott” seasons we have seen in India?)