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Agree - I put international SMS as in some countries (such as the UK) providers were beginning to bundle ‘free’ SMS before WhatsApp came along - in these markets international SMS / Voice / MMS for expats, students etc was a big deal. You’re right to point out though that in many countries, WhatsApp was the first cross platform free SMS of any kind.

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This conversation has not been very productive. Basically it’s a pedantic discussion about the meaning of marketing.

I recommend this [updated] 10-year-old article about finding your first 1000 customers:

https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

Much has been written about the idea:

https://seths.blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000/

https://nowspeed.com/seth-godins-latest-book-tribes/

http://jumpcut.com/blog/kevin-kelly-1000-true-fans/

Thanks for the links!

FYI: Patreon is the realization of 1000 True Fans, at least for musicians. Except only 50 - 250 patrons are needed to subsist full-time, much less than 1,000.

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