First of all, hundreds of millions of people use it IN Asia too.

Second, even if they didn't, with 1.3B users it's as large or larger than any other competitor app globally.

Third, they got 16B for it, while spending like $10 million to make it.

So I don't get where the sneer comes from.

Even if the statement wasn't false, it's not as if use in Asia is the be all end all of success?

I live in Hong Kong and close enough to 100% of people use WhatsApp. Most businesses display their WhatApp numbers in their flyers/billboards. Also; every company, sports club, social group has a massive WhatsApp group which they use to keep people updated. It can be quite annoying, to be honest, because everyone is always constantly WhatsApping these groups at every social gathering.

Living in Asia I use nothing but LINE unless dealing with property agents.

Asia is a continent; the biggest, and probably most diverse, continent in the world. Hong Kong was within Asia last time I checked, therefore your assertion that nobody in Asia uses WhatsApp is incorrect.

Traveling all around Asia, with the exception of HK and Korea... every country seems to use LINE more than WhatsApp by a Long shot. Except China.

Are you serious? Everyone and their grandma in India uses WhatsApp. It's so pervasive that it's almost like the only means of communication for people with smartphone and internet access.

I guess he meant wechat/qq,kakao and line that are dominant in other countries. Whatsapp is impressive though.

Most people seem to use LINE from what I see, living in singapore and traveling around.

WhatsApp user base is insanely impressive but it isn't even no 1 in the country Ycombinator is based in. FBM is. Then it also isn't no 1 in obvious countries like Korea Japan China Taiwan Vietnam.

While I agree that Whatsapp is the dominant chat app in Asia, it's not number 1 everywhere.

Notably - as you mentioned - Wechat in China, but also Kakao in Korea, Zalo in Vietnam and Line in Japan and Taiwan, where very few people use Whatsapp.

Agree with this one. Only local startup can compete whatsapp. Asia, rusia and africa.

In my experience, most people in Taiwan use both Whatsapp and Line

WhatsApp is #1 in 55% of countries. It loses out to Zalo, Line, imo, Facebook Messenger and Blackberry Messenger in various countries.

I'm pretty sure you made up every claim you just wrote. Why would you bother doing that?

Think he meant within Asia

It's not true within Asia, either. Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia...WhatsApp isn't #1 is any of those places and neither is WeChat.

I never said anything about WeChat?