BENGALURU: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that WhatsApp, the popular but unprofitable messaging application owned by his company, may be cannibalising the time Indians spend on its other social media apps, posing a challenge to the American giant in its largest market.
In a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Zuckerberg also reiterated his stand against data localisation in countries with a weak rule of law, though he didn’t specifically name any.
“You should expect that we won’t store sensitive data in countries where it might be improperly accessed because of weak rule of law or governments that can forcibly get access to your data,” he said. “Our stance on data localisation is a risk. That is, if we get blocked in a major country, that will hurt our community and our business.”
Zuckerberg said that he has been asked if the use of private social platforms such as WhatsApp will replace the more public platforms — Facebook and Instagram.
“As private platforms have grown, in some cases we’ve seen some cannibalisation of the more public platforms in countries like India, where WhatsApp is very popular,” Zuckerberg said. But as the broader pattern across the world shows that people want to use both private and public platforms, “I believe building out this private social platform is a much greater opportunity than it is a risk,” he said while discussing the social giant’s financial results.
WhatsApp remains unprofitable five years after it was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion. While there is no official statement on the reach of the messaging app in India, industry estimates peg its user base at 400 million.