Snapchat is weak in the very markets that Whatsapp is strong. Snap's argument for why is that their bandwidth heavy product does not do well in developing countries. This is a direct challenge to that reasoning -- is it the infrastructure (phone/bandwidth) that is holding people back or the lack of a network effect?
As infrastructure improves, Whatsapp is making the bet that users will prefer to use these features on an app that is already their primary social network.
I'm skeptical of the paternalistic arguments on HN that people don't really want these features -- perhaps the reason Whatsapp users don't use Snapchat is that their social graph hasn't moved to it, not that they don't want to share 'stories'.
As infrastructure improves, Whatsapp is making the bet that users will prefer to use these features on an app that is already their primary social network.
I'm skeptical of the paternalistic arguments on HN that people don't really want these features -- perhaps the reason Whatsapp users don't use Snapchat is that their social graph hasn't moved to it, not that they don't want to share 'stories'.