I asked GenSpark AI about this matter and here is what it says ..
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Based on my research, I can provide you with a comprehensive overview of how WhatsApp makes money. Here's how WhatsApp's business model works:
## WhatsApp's Revenue Model
WhatsApp operates on a **business-to-business (B2B) monetization strategy** while keeping the service completely free for individual users. The company generates revenue through several key streams:
### 1. **WhatsApp Business API** (Primary Revenue Stream)
- **Main source**: WhatsApp's largest revenue comes from its Business API, which allows medium and large businesses to communicate with customers at scale
- **Pricing structure**: Companies pay fees for sending messages (like order updates, boarding passes, or customer notifications) based on destination country and message volume
- **Revenue milestone**: The Business API generates most of WhatsApp's revenue and has surpassed a **$1 billion annual run rate** as of 2024
- **Additional features**: Businesses pay extra for premium tools like chatbots, automation, and analytics
### 2. **Click-to-WhatsApp Ads**
- **Mechanism**: Businesses create ads on Facebook and Instagram that allow users to start WhatsApp conversations directly
- **Revenue impact**: This has become Meta's fastest-growing ad format, generating approximately **$10 billion in revenue in 2024**
- **Strategy**: Leverages Meta's existing advertising ecosystem to drive business traffic to WhatsApp
### 3. **WhatsApp Pay (Payment Services)**
- **Markets**: Available in select regions like India and Brazil
- **User experience**: Free for person-to-person transfers
- **Business revenue**: WhatsApp charges businesses transaction fees (typically a percentage of transaction value) for payments received through the platform
- **Partnerships**: Works with financial institutions and payment processors
### 4. **Meta Verified Subscriptions**
- **Service**: Business verification program that provides trusted identity badges
- **Revenue model**: Subscription-based service for businesses wanting verified status
- **Benefits**: Helps businesses build customer trust and credibility
### 5. **WhatsApp Business App Premium Features**
- **Target market**: Small businesses
- **Paid features**: Automated replies, catalog integration, and other business tools
- **Approach**: Freemium model with basic features free and advanced features paid
### 6. **Indirect Data Monetization**
- **Privacy protection**: WhatsApp maintains end-to-end encryption for messages
- **Metadata collection**: Collects usage patterns and behavioral data (not message content)
- **Value creation**: This data enhances Meta's overall advertising targeting across its platform ecosystem
## Key Business Model Principles
**Free for Consumers**: WhatsApp maintains its commitment to being free and ad-free for individual users, with no plans to introduce traditional advertising in personal chats.
**B2B Focus**: All revenue streams target business customers rather than individual users, allowing WhatsApp to monetize business communication needs while preserving user experience.
**Integration with Meta Ecosystem**: WhatsApp leverages Meta's broader advertising and data infrastructure to create synergies across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
This business model has proven highly successful, with WhatsApp contributing significantly to Meta's overall revenue while maintaining its position as the world's most popular messaging platform with over 2 billion users globally. [Investopedia](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/040915/how-whatsapp-makes-money.asp) [Business Model Analyst](https://businessmodelanalyst.com/how-does-whatsapp-make-money/)
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So far, am kind of impressed. But, it is early days :P
Based on my research, here's what Marcus Aurelius says about toxic friends and difficult people:
## Marcus Aurelius on Toxic Friends and Difficult People
While Marcus Aurelius doesn't use the modern term "toxic friends," he offers profound wisdom about dealing with difficult, harmful, and negative people in his philosophical journal "Meditations." Here are his key insights:
### **1. Accept That Difficult People Exist**
Marcus Aurelius famously wrote in his morning reflection:
> "When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can't tell good from evil... And so none of them can hurt me."
> "So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine. What is done to me is ordained by nature, what I do by my own."
> "Someone despises me. That's their problem. Mine: not to do or say anything despicable. Someone hates me. Their problem. Mine: to be patient and cheerful with everyone, including them."
Marcus Aurelius advocated for taking the high road:
> "The best revenge is not to be like that."
This simple but powerful statement suggests that the most effective way to deal with toxic people is to refuse to mirror their behavior.
### **4. Look Deeper Before Reacting**
He encouraged understanding rather than immediate reaction:
> "When you face someone's insults, hatred, whatever... look at his soul. Get inside him. Look at what sort of person he is. You'll find you don't need to strain to impress him."
### **5. Choose Your Company Wisely**
Marcus believed in being selective about whose advice to follow:
> "Marcus said you should only listen to people 'whose lives conform to nature.' Conforming to nature means those people focused on doing good."
He advocated for trying to understand difficult people:
> "When faced with people's bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that... Your anger will subside as soon as you recognize that they acted under compulsion (what else could they do?)."
### **7. You Have the Power to Choose**
While not directly about friendships, Stoic philosophy emphasizes that we have more control over our relationships than we often acknowledge. As noted in the research, we can choose to limit exposure to people who make us "smaller" or "dirty and sully us by their nature."
### **The Stoic Approach to Toxic Relationships**
The Stoic perspective, as articulated by Marcus Aurelius and other philosophers like Epictetus, suggests that:
- **We cannot control others' behavior**, but we can control our response
- **Choose companions who elevate you** rather than diminish you
- **Focus on your own virtue and character** rather than trying to change others
- **Practice compassion** while maintaining boundaries
- **Remember that toxic behavior often stems from the person's own suffering or ignorance**
Marcus Aurelius's approach to toxic people centers on **internal strength, wisdom in choosing relationships, and maintaining one's own virtue regardless of others' behavior**. Rather than trying to fix or change difficult people, he advocated for protecting your own peace and character while responding with patience and understanding when interaction is necessary.
The video focuses specifically on American AI companies, as described in the author's book. But, the lessons are applicable to others. Interesting as Malaysia is pushing into AI as well.
2) Seth Godin on doing anything important with purpose. Makes so much sense.
1) Saya baca hypothesis tentang kemelut pemilihan PKR dari FB post ini, dan saya bersetuju dengan apa yang disampaikan. Saya copy paste di sini untuk lihat sama ada ia akan menjadi benar nanti.
" Terlalu jelas. Terang. Wujud gerakan sistematik menggunakan anak Presiden.
Mereka perlu lakukan segera kerana ini tempoh akhir presiden. Sasarannya untuk memastikan calon yang naik ke kerusi Presiden bukan RR.
RR adalah penghalang besar gerakan saki baki kartel yang ada dalam parti.
Untuk memastikan agenda ini berjaya, satu-satunya orang yang boleh mengeluarkan RR dari kerusi TP ialah anak Presiden sendiri.
Untuk tidak dilihat sebagai agenda kartel, segala keburukan dan kelemahan RR dikumpul dan dilonggokkan bagi mewajarkan agenda ini.
Kuat merajuk
Kuat melenting
Keras kepala
Lawan presiden
Narsistik
Raja formula
Dia saja yang betul
Kasar
Tak cukup dengan sifat-sifat yang cherry picking, fitnah pun turut dilempar. Fitnah bodoh seperti inflasi mencanak, tak tahu buat kerja dan terkini berlegar dalam kem sebelah sana kononnya RR kantoi buat bisnes lain dan ambik duit. Paling lawak RR sombong sebab budak koleq (MCKK) sedangkan PMX sendiri pun budak koleq.
Gerakan menyingkirkan RR dengan cara menyatakan sokongan terbuka kepada NIA melibatkan KC, MPN, Setpol PM dan Menteri-menteri.
Sesuatu yang tidak pernah berlaku sebelum ini. Ketua AMK, Mantan Ketua AMK pun zahirkan sokongan sama. Ketua Wanita Fadhlina Sidek kita faham, dia sedang cuba kekalkan jawatan dia.
Betullah tindakan RR buat HIRUK. Hidupkan Idealisma Reformasi dalam Ujian Kuasa. Nak ingatkan balik Idealisma kita dalam parti. Tujuan kita berpolitik dan ujian kuasa yang sedang kita hadapi.
Orang boleh lihat dengan jelas kepentingan setiap mereka yang menyokong anak presiden.
KC untuk jadi calon dan jawatan tempatan seperti ahli majlis dll
MPN, MPP yang mahukan jawatan dalam kementerian dan agensi serta GLC
Mereka semua seakan-akan takut tertinggal bas dan berpusu-pusu menzahirkan sokongan.
Tidak cukup dengan itu ada KC yang mengeluarkan arahan tegas agar perwakilan hanya mengundi NIA.
Semasa saya ikuti jelajah RR di Mentakab, ada KC hantar 'pengintip' untuk pastikan perwakilannya tidak ada yang datang dengar penjelasan RR. Jadi yang ramai-ramai tu datang siapa? Kebanyakan adalah rakyat atas pagar dan anggota parti yang baru sedar tentang gerakan jahat ini.
Sekitar 2023 atau 2024, difahamkan MPP ada menerima permohonan kemasukan semula Saudara Tian Chua ke dalam PKR. Tapi MPP menolak.
Penolakan ini dikaitkan dengan RR dan ramainya orang-orang RR dalam MPP. Maksudnya kalau ikon Reformasi Tian Chua pun susah, apa lagi para pengkhianat Sheraton.
Maka usaha digerakkan dari para pembenci RR untuk menyingkirkan beliau.
Malah usaha ini dikatakan telah dirancang awal termasuk artikel yang ditulis diluar negara berkenaan sebelum peralihan kuasa selepas Anwar dan kecurangan pemilihan. Keputusan cabang yang melihatkan ramai orang pro RR yang kecundang termasuk Menteri.
Melihat kepada sokongan 4/5 cabang terhadap NIA, kemungkinan besar tim NIA dari TP,NP dan MPP akan dimenangi oleh mereka.
Dan ini akan membuka ruang luas kepada mereka.
Baik ini tekaan liar saya (wild guess) jika tim NIA menang besar.
1. Nanti mereka mulakan dengan kelulusan kemasukan Tian Chua.
2. Naratif perjuangan Tian awal Reformasi 98 akan dimainkan untuk membina mood ahli.
3. Setelah semuanya berjalan lancar, beberapa orang pengkhianat langkah Sheraton akan memohon masuk pula.
4. Berlaku perdebatan panjang dan akan dimurnikan.
5. Setelah semuanya lancar, Azmin dan tim pulak akan masuk semula.
6. Gugur sebagai ADUN/MP? Tak kisah sebab dah hujung penggal.
7. Kena saman? Tak kisah..proses panjang.
8. Azmin dan tim akan bantu PRU-16. PH menang besar.
9. Desakan MP kerajaan supaya pindaan perlembagaan supaya PM hanya 2 penggal.
10. Pemilihan 2028, DSAI undur diri sebagai Presiden sebab itu kehendak perlembagaan parti.
11. Berlaku kekosongan jawatan Presiden. NIA ditunjuk untuk ke jawatan tersebut.
12. Tiba-tiba ramai KC dan MPN buat kenyataan media sokongan terbuka kepada Azmin untuk presiden.
13. NIA tak tahu nak kekal TP atau lawan AA.
14. AS umum lawan TP. NIA tersepit, TP dan Presiden ada yang lawan.
15. AA menang Presiden PKR. PMX habis penggal PM 2032.
16. Parlimen bubar. PH menang dan AA jadi PM.
Risau? Alah..ni tekaan aku je apa berlaku jika tim NIA menang besar.
Tapi aku bab pengkhianat Sheraton ni memang aku cukup benci.
Pengkhianat ni sebabkan usaha reform kerajaan dulu terganggu.
Pengkhianat ni sebabkan covid jadi makin teruk, yang mati yang sakit, habis duit EPF, kedai kilang habis bangkrap ni semua memang aku salahkan geng pengkhianat termasuk yang bersekongkol dengannya seperti PAS.
Pengkhianat ni juga buatkan lantikan politik PH yang berpuluh tahun berjuang tersungkur macam tu je. Yang YB ok lah..ada gaji ada pencen, tapi kesian betul yang lantikan lain. Berapa ramai tersungkur sebab pengkhianat Sheraton ni. 20 tahun susah, baru nak senang sikit. Tiba-tiba kerajaan jatuh.
Apa pun kepada semua perwakilan selamat mengundi. Anda yang menentukan halatuju dan masa depan parti ini khususnya dan negara amnya.
Pilih lah dengan ilmu agar tidak menyesal di kemudian hari.
Terima kasih
Fairul al Qasas "
2) Tiba2, am obsessed with OpenAI, especially Sam Altman. Saya ada satu blog post khusus tentang beliau di sini. Dia ada blog.
I read this article in The Athletic (subscription required), and thought it was a good read on how to handle failure. It features Bruce Arians, a retired NFL coach, who has won the SB once, and is a renowned offensive mind. He is a respected coach in the NFL circles.
I like this article from Ryan Holiday and asked MS Copilot to summarize it
" Ryan Holiday's article reflects on the four-year journey of running his bookstore, The Painted Porch. He shares key lessons learned about business, books, and life. Some of the main takeaways include:
- Counterprogramming works – Opening a physical bookstore in 2020 seemed risky, but precisely because it was unconventional, it stood out and succeeded.
- Diversification is key – The bookstore isn't just a retail space; it's also an office, a podcast studio, and a creative hub, ensuring multiple revenue streams.
- Resist the urge to scale – Holiday emphasizes knowing when to stop expanding, citing the importance of recognizing success and avoiding unnecessary risks.
- Curate a unique selection – Instead of stocking thousands of titles, The Painted Porch carries only about 1,000 books that Holiday personally loves, making it a distinct experience for visitors.
- Create memorable experiences – Spectacles, like an eye-catching book tower, help draw people in and make the store a destination. "
Ah, the classic conundrum of strategy versus tactics!
- **Strategy** is the grand master plan, the overarching vision that guides long-term goals. It's about setting the direction and making big-picture decisions. Think of it as the "what" and the "why."
- **Tactics** are the specific actions and steps taken to implement the strategy. They are more about the "how" and the "when." Tactics are the means to achieve the strategic goals.
In a nutshell, strategy sets the destination, and tactics are the route you take to get there.
For example: - In a business context, a company's strategy might be to become the market leader in eco-friendly products. The tactics to achieve this could include launching a new product line, increasing marketing efforts, and forging partnerships with sustainable suppliers.
- In a game of chess, your strategy might be to control the center of the board, while your tactics would involve the individual moves and maneuvers to capture your opponent's pieces and secure the center.
ChatGPT answers
The main difference between **strategy** and **tactic** lies in their scope and purpose:
- **Strategy** is the **big picture plan** that defines long-term goals and overall direction. It answers **"What do we want to achieve?"** - **Tactic** is a **specific action** or method used to implement the strategy. It answers **"How will we achieve it?"**
### Example in Business: - **Strategy:** Expand into Southeast Asian markets within five years. - **Tactics:** Launch a localized ad campaign, partner with regional distributors, and offer country-specific promotions.
### Example in War: - **Strategy:** Win the war by cutting off enemy supply lines. - **Tactics:** Use guerrilla warfare, sabotage bridges, and intercept supply convoys.
Read this article by Cal Newport about productivity raindance, and it hits the spot in terms of productivity, in my opinion.
Overall, the article talks about balancing the process and the output as well. James Clear is popular about focusing on the process, and rightly so, as well, but it makes sense that the output matters as well, and has to be considered.
It reminds me about what Ali Abdaal has said about productivity, which it has to be intentional, effective and enjoyable. The key here is intentional.
I will definitely consider the ideas here, going further.
Cal Newport n Chris Williamson
One of Ali's productivity videos ... he talks and does a lot of productivity stuff
C tolong A gaduh dengan B dengan bantuan logistic, tp yg gaduh depan2 adalah A dengan B.
Lepas tu, tiba2 B dan C berbincang bagaimana nak stop gaduh dengan A, tapi A tak diajak berbincang dan disuruh duduk diam2. Apa yang B dan C putuskan, A mesti ikut, kata mereka.
A - Ukraine
B - Russia
C - USA
Betul ke telahan den tentang apa yang tengah berlaku di Arab Saudi sekarang?
PS/ - This is some weird s**t. Putin is disco dancing now.
I realize I watch a lot of interesting videos and some of them contain good ideas, insights and lessons, so from now on, I post these videos and info about these stuff under Notebook. Probably, not daily, but at least every few days.
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Video(s)
Overview of DeepSeek
- a nuanced review of DeepSeek
The Triumph of Human Spirit
Whatever you think about Gaza, you have to respect the resilience of humanity.
DeepSeek 101 for Techie Geeks
A nice introduction to DeepSeek and how it works, for techies.
An interesting article about Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Met Gala. I have always been interested in the fashion world, from a creativity and beauty perspective. Check out The First Monday In May, a documentary on the Met Gala, with the content among others, focusing on him.
The videos below are the shows mentioned in the article.
