Inside the High-Stakes Battle to Control How You Talk to Friends | Wired Business | Wired.com
▻http://www.wired.com/business/2014/02/ff_messagingwars/?cid=co19099634
Before the scrum over who will control mobile messaging turned hot last week, with Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, things got very, very cold. In December, an ice storm was blowing into the Canadian city of Waterloo, and even by Ontario standards it was epic. On the radio, the local newscasters were talking about flight cancellations and telling listeners to stay off the streets. Within 24 hours, 400,000 people would lose power for several days. But Ted Livingston, the CEO of Kik—perhaps the most daring of the messaging apps that are redefining how young users communicate in the mobile era—wanted to take me for a drive.