2009年，美國人氣移動社交應(yīng)用WhatsApp的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人布萊恩·阿克頓找工作時，曾被社交媒體巨頭Facebook拒之門外。2014年，WhatsApp作價190億美元賣給了Facebook，阿克頓等創(chuàng)始團(tuán)隊成員由此成為巨富。2017年，他又因Facebook將WhatsApp變現(xiàn)的計劃跟Facebook分道揚(yáng)鑣。

據(jù)網(wǎng)絡(luò)新聞媒體BuzzFeed News報道，上周三，作為WhatsApp的競爭對手、非營利機(jī)構(gòu)Signal的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，阿克頓呼吁大家一起抵制Facebook，刪除手機(jī)上的應(yīng)用。此前他曾提出同樣的建議。

周三當(dāng)天，阿克頓作為客座講師在母校斯坦福大學(xué)給本科班授課。他批評了硅谷通過交易隱私牟利的行徑，雖然他自己也從中賺了錢。

BuzzFeed報道稱，阿克頓當(dāng)時表示: “之前我手下有50個員工，必須為他們著想，考慮他們能從中賺多少錢。我也得為投資者考慮，想著自己持有的少數(shù)股權(quán)。就算我想拒絕，也沒勇氣說出口?！?/p>

阿克頓的確離開了Facebook，如果沒有離職，他可以得到Facebook最后一筆價值8.5億美元的股票。

阿克頓和WhatsApp另一位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人簡·科姆原本希望另找方法將WhatsApp應(yīng)用變現(xiàn)。他們一開始打算向WhatsApp用戶每年收取1美元，支持提供隱私和安全的模式。他們認(rèn)為只要有足夠的用戶就能盈利。

“賺不到大錢，如果有10億用戶……每年收入也就10億美元?？墒?，谷歌和Facebook看不上，他們想賺幾十億美元。”阿克頓在斯坦福的課堂上這樣說。

科姆去年也離開了Facebook，據(jù)稱是因為Facebook想利用WhatsApp用戶的個人數(shù)據(jù)。（財富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton was rejected by Facebook when he applied for a job there in 2009. In 2014, the messaging service sold itself to the social network for $19 billion, making Acton, among others, wildly wealthy. Then he rejected Facebook in 2017 over its plans to monetize WhatsApp.

And on Wednesday, Acton—now the head of Signal, the nonprofit rival to WhatsApp—again called for people to join him and reject Facebook by deleting the app from their phones, BuzzFeed News reported. He’s publicly made that suggestion before.

In an appearance as a guest speaker to an undergraduate class at his alma mater, Stanford, Acton criticized Silicon Valley for making money by trading privacy for revenue, even though he ultimately profited himself from it.

“I had 50 employees, and I had to think about them and the money they would make from this sale,” Acton said, according to BuzzFeed. “I had to think about our investors and I had to think about my minority stake. I didn’t have the full clout to say no if I wanted to.”

Acton did walk away from Facebook before he received the final $850 million in stock grants he could have collected.

Both Acton and the other WhatsApp co-founder, Jan Koum, had hoped they could create another way to monetize their app. Originally, WhatsApp would charge users $1 a year that would support a model of privacy and security. They thought, with enough users, it would be profitable.

“It was not extraordinarily money-making, and if you have a billion users … you’re going to have $1 billion in revenue per year,” Acton said at Stanford. “That’s not what Google and Facebook want. They want multibillions of dollars.”

Koum left Facebook in 2018, reportedly due to Facebook’s plans to use personal data of WhatsApp members.