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Havish Gupta
Figuring Out • 6m
How facebook predicted Rise of WhatsApp and Snapchat using this App! The story begins with an Israeli app called Onavo, initially developed as a data-saving and analytics tool. Later, the app added a VPN feature to improve its usability. In 2013, Facebook purchased Onavo for $200 million and rebranded it as a VPN app that claimed to protect user privacy. However, the irony here is that facebook's real intention was to use it to collect data on which apps and features users were engaging with. In an email dated June 9, 2016, Mark Zuckerberg directed Facebook engineers to find a way to obtain "reliable analytics" about Snapchat, as Facebook lacked such data due to Snapchat's network traffic being encrypted. Later they also included apps like Amazon and YouTube for the data collection. In Feb 2018, Facebook started advertising Onavo on iOS devices, catching Apple's attention. Apple removed Onavo from the App Store in August of the same year, citing violations of its data collection policies. In Feb 2019, Facebook removed the app from the Google Play Store and ceased all operations. It is estimated that insights from Onavo influenced Facebook's decisions to acquire WhatsApp and Instagram, as well as copy features like Stories and Stickers from Snapchat. This is truly Smart or just straight out cruel!
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