WhatsApp have more than a billion worldwide users, but most of them aren’t in America. Why is that?

With the social media explosion, everyone’s become a communication machine, even if it happens to be with auto-responding bots on Twitter. But not everyone wants to post everything to everyone, sometimes you’ve got to keep it discrete.

WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, used by an estimated 55.6 percent of the world’s countries. Over 70 million users in India alone. Brazil, Mexico, Russia and Africa are also massive WhatsApp adopters. (No, Africa isn’t a country.) So why isn’t the US jumping onto a winning instant messaging app?

It provides a lot more than just traditional text messaging, such as seamless photo and video sharing, voice recordings, internet calls and more. WhatsApp messages get sent via the Internet, so they’re basically free over Wi-Fi and doesn’t deplete your data limit. Whereas text messages get sent over the telephone network, who aren’t afraid to charge.

So why the disconnect?

The biggest reason seems to be a great diversity of competitive mobile operating platforms, offering bundled flat-rate packages on SMS and MMS at a much lower cost than countries outside of the US. In the US, MMS messages are still part of the unlimited text messages included with your plan. WhatsApp’s cost effectiveness perhaps doesn’t provide enough reason for Americans to switch.

In other countries with less resources and higher data costs, the population have to get creative to save money. The rest of the world seem to have been drawn to WhatsApp as a cost efficient and user-friendly workaround. This also includes other options such as Skype, Telegram, Viber, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, iMessage and Kik.

The day Whatsapp started offering phone calls was a major milestone in communication for many. Before this it was overly expensive to call internationally. You sometimes had to wait until you flew home to find out whether your newborn was a boy or girl. Now we have almost free group calls linking all corners of the planet.

And why not, we should all be able to communicate freely. Or at least at an affordable cost. (Let’s not get started on local data pricing.)

http://coolfidence.com/whatsapp-with-america-solution-20070

Is competition a good thing? We are all scripted to believe it is. People often say things like, “We welcome competition.” Is competition a natural thing? Is it a product of society or is it something inherent in all of us. Animals don’t compete. They try to survive – there is a big difference. Animals certainly don’t try and better each other in the process. The leopards, for example, are climbing trees, not the corporate ladder. It’s not about eating more, or catching the antelope faster than the next guy. It’s about eating – that’s it. I think. So, do we need to beat our competitors? Surely we should strive to beat ourselves, besides, why climb the corporate ladder when you can take the escalator?

http://coolfidence.com/compete-with-yourself-solution-20069

A business represents a group of people – a team. And this is probably where the cracks start appearing. A team should try challenging itself to continually improve on the day before, the week before or the year before. And we need teams. “We” compete better than “I”. There is enough competition in the marketplace – there is no need to bring it into your corporation.

I guess we can debate whether competition is a natural principle for hours? Or whether it is something that is a result of our surroundings and the society we have been conditioned by. The world is in an anxious state (just watch the news on any given day). There are too many obsolete and incomplete paradigms in the world. Competition is one of them. We live in a world where we are told that competition is good for us. And it is a powerful, deeply entrenched principle that is old fashioned. It is a not paradigm of mutual benefit, but rather of win/lose. Win/lose is incomplete. All teams need to win. Take a soccer match, for example. Can both teams win? How can this be so? Dig deep into your imaginations here. If the principle was “stretch” and not “competition” then both teams could win. The game could always be a draw and each team would try to do better than they did before and they would stretch themselves and try to realize their full potential. And in the match itself you would exercise, bond, socialize and have fun. In short: we could get 2 teams to play each other and reap all the benefits of social interaction and yet at the same time we could have everyone be winners.

Ticks causing fever were documented as far back as ancient Egyptian times; they’re also famous for spreading Lyme disease. Australia even has something called a Paralysis Tick, which you don’t often hear mentioned in their tourism brochures. But there’s a new tick in town that’s a lot more useful to us… the blue ticks on a WhatsApp message, indicating that we’ve officially communicated with someone.

You can send images, video clips, audio files and make calls, and the company prides itself on being securely encrypted, for free. All with an interface that makes it easy for your technophobe aunt to use, partly why it’s achieved so much success over the last decade.

Other messaging options like Viber, Telegram and WeChat are all solid, but can’t beat the current messaging heavyweight champion. With 30 billion WhatsApps sent daily, it’s the most popular messaging application on the planet.

What is the protocol with WhatsApp and instant messaging? Does it have a place in business, or is it just for sexting couples or teen gossip? Is it too intrusive to be used on a professional level?

Using Direct Messages on Twitter, Facebook mails or even asking someone to get hold of you via your Instagram comments could once be seen as an encroachment on privacy, but are now all fair game to aid communication. Like it or not, shouldn’t we be able to use all the new communication tools at our disposal?

When cellphones first came out, they were nice to have, and then became an invasion of privacy. Getting hold of someone immediately suddenly became the most important thing. Was instant connection just as important when you could only get hold of people on a landline? Back then you had to plan ahead for proper correspondence.

Even further back, Pheidippides is said to have run from Marathon to Athens (250km) to deliver news of a military victory against the Persians. If only he’d had WiFi.

http://coolfidence.com/instant-messaging-whatsapp-with-that-solution-20068

A successful company continues to live its purpose by a set of values that are rock solid. These values make up the “how” part in the three questions. How defines the behaviour and attitude of a company’s people. There is no universal accepted set of correct core values. You discover “how” by looking within. You cannot fake values. You either have them or you don’t. Values are not open to change – they must stand the test of time.

A company typically will try to articulate about five things that it holds sacred. At Internet Solutions (IS), for example, we believe in professionalism, customer service, integrity, empowerment and fun as our core values. We strive always to be professional, both internally and externally. We endeavour to be customer focused, always acting with integrity. We attempt to empower our staff by listening and by sharing. And we try to work hard and play hard. And we always stand firm in our beliefs, never compromising what we represent, and never violating our integrity. We are very passionate about our company and what it stands for. Our intense belief in our value system and our purpose is what drives this passion.

Like many companies today, the organization I am describing here is largely a people business. It is about people sharing ideas with people, it is about people proposing solutions to people, and it is about people working together. It is about relationships. We practice professional behaviour at all times, both internally with staff, and externally with customers. And we always strive for win-win relationships.

I have learnt who works for whom in our organization. Whenever someone joins the company we have to work harder and listen more. I want all of the people who come on board to win. If they win, I win. It is that simple. And for them to win they need to be empowered. Their ideas need to be heard. And they need to make a difference. My job is to make sure that they can make a huge difference.

http://coolfidence.com/please-read-the-house-rules-before-entering-solution-20067

It’s not easy for advertisers nowadays. Gone is the Golden Age of advertising, when there was a monopoly on consumer attention. There’s only so much prime time space available on TV, billboards and in major newspapers. This is also incredibly expensive to iterate enough times to get noticed. Traditional advertising platforms are more likely to be seen as (expensive) wallpaper. A new style of marketing is required to create engagement, and in the digital realm, there’s plenty of room for this.

http://coolfidence.com/stop-shouting-reasons-to-add-storytelling-to-your-marketing-solution-20066

It used to be all about the advertising agency. The father figure and purveyor of cool, telling people what to think and buy. We’ve now moved to a consumer-empowered market, where the customer is the centre of the universe.

Business should focus on making a difference and not only on making money. And leaders need to listen more than anyone else. Furthermore, money and motivation have nothing to do with each other. Now, if you think these ideas are crazy, then how about this: It does not take a great idea to start a great company. In fact, starting a company based on an idea might actually be a bad idea.

Yes, please do not read this from the angle of whether or not you agree or disagree. Don’t read to agree or disagree. This stifles learning and this is a big challenge in these modern times of constant distraction. Give your full attention to understanding. If you fully understand and you disagree then that is your right. Having understood a different viewpoint, you are entitled to disagree. One has to learn to understand viewpoints with which you don’t agree with. You don’t have to hear what you agree with – what you agree with you know already. What one has to study and learn are viewpoints with which you don’t agree.

http://coolfidence.com/dont-listen-to-agree-or-disagree-just-agree-to-listen-solution-20065

E-mail is so easy, anyone can do it, right? Maybe not. Ultimately, sending mail is about communicating, and we can all aim to be better communicators.

http://coolfidence.com/dont-be-an-e-mail-pest-here-are-7-ways-to-be-better-at-it-solution-20064

According to Maslow’s hierarchy, we need food and shelter to survive. Love and self-actualisation are nice to have, but not essential. A new laptop or a motorbike for going on weekend brunches are not on the essentials list. So why do we need to buy so much unnecessary stuff? Is it a conspiracy dreamed up by world powers, in collusion with the capitalism machine? Whatever the reason, you probably don’t need as much as you do. You’ve already got three pairs of jeans that you never wear, why are you checking out another pair? Because they’re on sale? Because your favourite celeb wore the brand on Instagram? And do you need another novelty appliance that never gets used? When last did you juice something? There’s a chance that retail therapy may lead to actual therapy.

http://coolfidence.com/8-ways-to-combat-the-spend-trend-solution-20062

An entrepreneur is someone who makes a contribution to the world as we know it. And for this they get rewarded. Sometimes in kind, sometimes in love, and of course, sometimes in money. I know that many people in the world think that it is all about money, but I would like to challenge this view. Making a contribution to the world does not always have a number or prize attached to it. Sometimes the rewards are not things we can see.

Entrepreneurs always display the following 3 qualities: they are positive, they are curious and they are decisive. Entrepreneurs always see the glass as being half full. They want to learn, continuously. About the industry they are in. About the law. About technology. About life, people, relationships, spirituality and religion. And entrepreneurs always move ahead; even if they take 3 steps forwards and 2 steps backwards, they make decisions and they grow from them.

True entrepreneurs continually dream of doing something different. Of giving something back to society in some way. Many people miss the point in business though. The real challenge is to make a difference in the world. And if you make money doing so it simply means that your contribution was valued. Think of that old saying that the best way to receive is to give. Entrepreneurs are very giving. Of their time, their ideas, their energy, and their enthusiasm.

http://coolfidence.com/so-you-want-to-make-a-contribution-solution-20061