A free web app for us all wins a king’s ransom

Almost everything we hear of the internet giants - and the astonishing fortunes they make and seemingly never lose - has to do with other people, strangers. Hopefully I don't sound too cynical, but it seems internet things can be into divided into two.

There's the them, the internet big boys who get sufficient funds to quash many countries' national debt.

And there's you and me - if you'll excuse me including you. We become entranced by things on the web and we buy the googies which only adds to the heady fortunes of those others.

Apple's net profit for the last year was a cool $48.35 billion, down - terribly sad to say - from $53.39 billion in 2015.

Web success

A quick look at Amazon seems almost mandatory in this context.

'Amazon.com Inc reported a profit near $2 billion, the largest in its history, as the online retailer ...' reports Reuters of Amazon's last quarter last year.

Staggering stuff, but here's a completely different take on web success.

Two fellows clewed up on web matters set about offering the world - you and me - an absolutely free chat system via the web. Brilliant Brian Acton and Jan Koum found a way to get their idea to work on the net and our mobiles, and gave us WhatsApp.

True, the original plan was for us to use WhatsApp for a year for free, and then pay some minimal charge.

Helping a lot of people

Still, excellent news for you and me. Then staggering news for those two good-hearted fellows. Along came Facebook and bought the whole caboodle off them for, wait for it - $21.8 billion.

Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventure book, Sailing to Purgatory, at SailingToPurgatory.com