Not all press is good press, and even less so when your brand gets dragged down by another tainted entity. This was the lesson learned by WhatsApp when it announced a new privacy agreement last week. The backlash was so swift that it’s main competitor Signal crashed due to a vast influx of new users departing the Facebook owned messenger service.
Our article analysis shows just how toxic WhatsApp has become. WhatsApp is the largest entity in our Word Cloud and deep red to show it’s negative contextual sentiment. WhatsApp is not the only loser from this debacle, other Facebook properties Instagram and Messenger are just as negative, but not as prominent throughout the article. However, according to the author, these services pose a greater risk to privacy than the lead figure in the piece.
This is a great demonstration of how media coverage can have such a strong influence over customer sentiment. WhatsApp faced the brunt of the public backlash because it’s name was most prominent – and its competitors gained while being neutral entities themselves (Signal and Telegram are featured in our word cloud in small letters and with neutral contextual sentiment). Consumers are almost blinded by their disdain for the Facebook product without discerning which competitor is best.
Social media backlash has been simmering for quite a time now, and even more so with recent news on platforms banning the outgoing U.S. President. In the case of this article, it would seem that the winner of this backlash is anything that’s not WhatsApp.
Read our full article analysis here.
