Just two days ago, it makes it 8 years since the creation of Whatsapp on Feb 24, 2009. In the name of celebrating 9 years of unequalled successes, Whatsapp launched new features on its mobile app like status and new emojis.

WhatsApp, was incorporated in 2009 by
Brian Acton and Jan Koum , both former employees of Yahoo! . After Koum and Acton left Yahoo! in September 2007, the duo traveled to South America as a break from work. Jan Koum became the man with the idea as Acton left him. Just some days ago, it dawn on me that why or what has Whatsapp done differently to just silence 2go even when the 2go vision was becoming clearer. Is it because 2go was created by some Africans? But no.
Whatsapp and 2go share some significant similarities as they both started from the scratch. 2go was created in 2007 by a couple of University of Witwatersrand students as a communication tool. 2go started as a mobile website and was used to upload and share the students’ timetables and lectures with each other. In 2008, two of the founders left, leaving
Alan Wolff and Ashley Peter behind. Under their management, 2go moved away from the students-only model by targeting developing markets in Africa.

One thing we must note is this, 2go was created by some group of students who were seeking a way to help their fellow students out, while Whatsapp was created by a group of sacked individuala seeking a place to invest their knowledge. Some of Whatsapp founders(Acton) left during the creation process, so do 2go. So where did 2go got it wrong? 2go started in 2007, two years before the creation of Whatsapp by some south Africans.

By Percentage through relativity, 2go did well in its first year better than Whatsapp in number of users and messages sent. One may want to assume that Koum got his idea from the 2go messenger due to how it started but the question will still remain what did Whatsapp do differently.
For years, 2go had no partner, sponsor or shareholders, maybe due to inavailability of shareholders or space for them. Whatsapp received almost $1.5 billion USD investment In its first three years.

Whatsapp rapid growth has been remarkable. On August 24, 2014, Koum announced on his Twitter account that WhatsApp had over 600 million active users worldwide. At that point WhatsApp was adding about 25 million new users every month, or 833,000 active users per day. With 65 million active users representing 10% of the total worldwide users, India has the largest number of consumers.

On February 19, 2014, months after a venture capital financing round at a $1.5 billion valuation, Facebook announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Since Facebook acquisition, Whatsapp growth has been immeasurable.
Whereas, december 2014, 2go reached over 2 million monthly active users on Android. The Android version brought forth many design changes and additions that other platforms received in the v3.5 release. 2go for BlackBerry 10 was released in April 2014 which the latest release was version 3.8. Whatsapp has more than 7 billion messages sent in a day, whereas 2go only manage to see such count in a month. Whatsapp is presently the first social networking app in the world according to Forbes with its CEO – Mark Zuckerberg the fifth richest man in the world just in 13 years. With 2go founders not among the richest in his state – Capetown.

What did 2go miss – Lessons for Entrepreneurs

Improvements
2go improvements were slow and ‘local’, as the founders only change the profile rank, view, emojis and some others periodically. Whatsapp improvements are rapid and internationally welcomed by all as its adds to its users worth online.

Communication Link with Users
Just few people nearly know 2go’s creator while most internet users in the world knows Zuckerberg, and he reaches out to them monthly.

Lack of investors
2go did not get investors during its early years, to help actualize their dreams.
Inability to discern Strong Markets
Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and also the biggest user of 2go, but 2go founders did not to sustain this market. Zuckerberg understood this, and exploited it.


The factors listed above are essential to any entrepreneur’s success.


http://scholarzine.com.ng/after-8-years-how-facebook-maimed-2go-market/

Cc: Lalasticlala , Seun

I think that WhatsApp positioned itself as a messenger first and so the simplicity of just putting in your number and off you go took it way ahead.

2go rather saw itself as a social platform where people have profiles and meet each other BUT they were not quick enough to catch the Android fever so when people were opening their android for the first time all they saw was WhatsApp and BBM and Facebook.

I guess that's the point where their lack of partnership with hardware manufacturers and sponsors narrowed down their user base

I think the 2go team were too slow to recognize Android as a potential hit in the phone market then, which explained why there was a late android version of 2go. To me, the guys behind 2go were being slowly reactive at a time when they were supposed to be proactive. #LessonForMe

ITbomb:
I think that WhatsApp positioned itself as a messenger first and so the simplicity of just putting in your number and off you go took it way ahead.

2go rather saw itself as a social platform where people have profiles and meet each other BUT they were not quick enough to catch the Android fever so when people were opening their android for the first time all they saw was WhatsApp and BBM and Facebook.

I guess that's the point where their lack of partnership with hardware manufacturers and sponsors narrowed down their user base

100 % correct...
You sound too intelligent to be a Nigerian youth..
God bless you

eezeribe:


100 % correct...
You sound too intelligent to be a Nigerian youth..
God bless you

what do you mean by this statement? Its a slap on the faces of Nigerian youths.