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They spied on their mobile users with the Facebook app to detect Instagram and WhatsApp growth early


corporate espionage at global scale to get ahead of existential threats is some pretty insightful leadership, it’s all a matter of what team you’re rooting for.


By the time FB bought WhatsApp it had nearly a billion users. No need for technology conspiracy nonsense.


I guess it's hard to say how much them monitoring their (potential) competitors influenced their decisions but it's definitely _not_ conspiracy nonsense and pretty well documented:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onavo

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47281906




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