<story><title>Things that cost more than Space Exploration: WhatsApp.</title><url>http://costsmorethanspace.tumblr.com/post/77364014273/what-costs-more-than-space-exploration-whatsapp</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ajays</author><text>This post is next in the sequence of HN posts after a large exit: comparison with NASA&amp;#x27;s budget, cost of trip to Mars, etc.&lt;p&gt;Typical sequence:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;   - news of the large exit, submitted repeatedly
   - hastily written blogs about why it doesn&amp;#x27;t make sense
   - hastily written blogs about why it makes sense
   - cute stories about the company&amp;#x27;s past: founder(s) living on Ramen, etc.
   - comparisons with NASA&amp;#x27;s budget, Mars exploration budget, Gates Foundation budget, etc.
   - and finally, breathless &amp;quot;news&amp;quot; about the slightest change in the acquiree&amp;#x27;s ToS or some such silly news&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Things that cost more than Space Exploration: WhatsApp.</title><url>http://costsmorethanspace.tumblr.com/post/77364014273/what-costs-more-than-space-exploration-whatsapp</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>taspeotis</author><text>For (what I feel is) a more useful figure, let&amp;#x27;s look at NASA:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Annual budget ... when measured in real terms (adjusted for inflation), the figure is $790.0 billion, or an average of $15.818 billion per year over its fifty-year history. [1]&lt;p&gt;So WhatsApp is like 1.2 years worth of NASA.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Budget_of_NASA&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>