<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>tokenadult</author><text>On the other hand, considering that the surface of the moon has already been visited by space probes carrying instruments and by manned spacecraft, while many billions of possible combinations of human beings having conversations here on earth have never happened, there is probably a lot more undiscovered return on investment to be had from investing in WhatsApp than from investing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Both are arguably good things to spend money on, but investment flows sometimes attempt to follow where the big returns are likely to be.</text></comment>