SOLD! Facebook bought Whatsapp

Whatsapp has been bought by Facebook for $16 billion dollars — plus another $3 billion over the next four years.

Most Whatsapp users (at least in Europe) were asleep when the word spread that Facebook had just bought the messaging app. Waking up this morning the media was full (at least if you follow international aka US sources) with reports about the deal, which is 19x the Instagram deal.

I use Whatsapp on a daily basis — actually I’m just checking it again. It might be an unusual app for US costumers still but not for so much longer. To understand the principle of how Whatsapp works and why it is worth a lot (okay, maybe not all the $19 billion) you need to understand the European market of telecommunication.

Living in Switzerland, right in the center of Europe, brings a lot of interaction with the surrounding countries. In fact, I live in Switzerland, go grocery shopping in Austria, can spend my afternoon in Germany and be back for dinner in Liechtenstein. I can actually see Austria from my backyard. ;)

The way mobile communication used to work, we’re talking late 90's and 2000's here, back when it just took off, was totally different of today’s. People used to text a lot but never as much as the average US citizen. Also you pay per SMS…