Our Role

Below are the insights that we found involving WhatsApp with our Culture Crossovers. From how WhatsApp is perceived, to how WhatsApp is central to their personal and professional lives.

#1 We Provide The Platform Where They Can Privately Be Themselves, In Whatever Version They Choose To Turn Up In

WhatsApp is a safe space for our Culture Crossover. It is part of their survival and a way for them to cope and connect. For those that may be working here, it is even a place to ‘alert’ others to raids, warnings and otherwise. For those within the LGBTQ+ community, it is a safe space where they can find and connect to others in their community.

When Snapchat dropped off as ‘the personal bedroom’ [Pseudo x Instagram research, 2019], WhatsApp took that space, providing a platform within which people could be themselves, in whatever version they chose to turn up in. As a space, we do not ‘rate’ them or ask others to do so. We let them get on with it, enabling their lives rather than judging them. This is the safe space we provide.

We are a safe haven for them.

#2 We are Reserved For What is Intimate, Personal. We are not Social Media, We are Uniquely and Powerfully Real

WhatsApp is personal. It’s intimate, and it’s considered very private. You get someone’s Instagram handle before their WhatsApp [cell number].

Continuing to respect this privacy is key for us. How can we strengthen how safe they feel with us amongst others? What are the other product benefits we can bring in? What products and services can we provide that give them confidence that we can look after their privacy best?

“One of the girls we spoke to was really hesitant to give someone her WhatsApp as she considered it so personal and instead, she gave them her Instagram." [Group Debrief session]

WA Feature requests:

• Within group chats, the ability to selectively send to certain members without starting a new chat

• Divide chats by tabs/categories

• More control over who sees when I’m online [for instance, they may want their mum to know, but not a contact]

• More flexibility in terms of privacy overall

#3 WhatsApp Is Not Social Media; And Nor Should We Seek To Be

Social media is anti-social.

It becomes something to be monitored, something that parents have to ‘keep an eye on’ and become cautious about.

The key secret to our success and the safety we provide is that we’re not defined as a social media space. Let the other platforms become that. Our audience doesn’t need another social media space [Pseudo x Instagram research, 2019].

• Parental control is not something we should aim to build in, but rather something we should avoid.

• If we need controlling, we have lost control.

• We must remain a safe, private space.

“The younger generation know that social media is a façade. It’s not real. We are real.” [Group Debrief session]

#4 We Act as The Archive of Their Lives, Cultures and Experiences

WhatsApp is a memory box, an archive and a draft pad for future roots. People hold languages, recipes and customs in their chats.

We are the keepers of everything they’ve done and all that they do.

In this way, we are an archive. A keeper of relationships. A box of shared times.

This is a great responsibility on us and one we have to continue to understand and look into with new product features].

“Memory shapes where people are and where they’re going.” [Group Debrief]

#5 We Are Instrumental To Their Livelihoods, Allowing Them To Navigate The Hustle

WhatsApp is not simply social, we are a business tool too. Remembering that we are dealing with entrepreneurs is imperative.

For instance, at a Brazilian moto-center we visited, they spoke about how they come from a laid-back Brazilian culture back home but have adopted the hustle and bustle of London and therefore the efficiency that demands. They are looking towards WhatsApp to help with both that efficiency and their hectic, hustling lives.

“For family threads on WhatsApp, I scroll through quickly, checking everyone is alive, and if there are voice notes, I’m listening to them at two-times speed to make it quicker.” [Brazilian Consumer Chat]

As a product, we are messy, we can be cluttered and chaotic [also noted in the Group Debrief sessions]. Whether business owners or not, our audience run busy, multi-dimensional lives. Finding ways to give them more space to think, grow and ‘be’ feels crucial. We cannot interrupt or obstruct them.

#6 We Remove Barriers Through Our Simplicity

WhatsApp is a safe space because of our simplicity.

While catering to the hustle and bustle of our audience's lives is important, we do have to keep it simple, however.

• They trust the simplicity of our product; we are not complicated.

• Even if you can’t write, you can use WhatsApp.

• This is what makes us matter and therefore embedded in their lives.

We request very little from them.

WhatsApp is a safe space, because it is a free space. Our audience trusts us because we’re free and don’t try to sell them anything. We don’t even advertise ourselves or others to them. Due to this, they believe there is ‘no hidden agenda’ [Group debrief]. We have to maintain and protect this. Salespeople aren’t trusted, but WhatsApp is [and Instagram is increasingly ‘the salesman’ in their socials]...

#7 A Compliment To Their Physical Lives As A Superpower

WhatsApp is a safe digital space, but they need safe physical spaces too. For those that may be working here, it is even a place to ‘alert’ others to raids, warnings and otherwise. 

All brands should use their power to make a difference, if we can do that by extending our implication of ‘safe [digital] space’ to include safe physical spaces, then we should.

Whether this is events that bring communities together (rather than apart) or by championing new talent and reinforcing reflections of themselves, there are myriad ways in which we can play in the cultural event space, always ensuring it is safe, it is simple and it is social.

“We need to be providing physical spaces where they can learn and grow and that’s something that WhatsApp can help with in this day and age.”[Group Debrief]

“This audience is very, very aware of marketing. Whoever we partner with has to be appropriate, we can’t appropriate.” [Ruby Pseudo]