Whatsapp — Now a Soon To Be Facebook Company
Yes,it’s happening. After being rejected by Snapchat, Facebook laid it’s eyes on the all-time popular Whatsapp Messenger. Facebook is going to acquire the 4 year old application for a staggering 19 Billion$. To put things into perspective, Whatsapp was valued far more than many other companies which make touchable goods and not a single application. Some of the biggest names include Macy’s and Activision — Blizzard. So what resulted in Mark Zuckerburg wanting to purchase this hugely popular app or is it just that Facebook wants to dominate teenager’s time? Like first Instagram, then an attempt on Snapchat and now Whatsapp. Let’s find out.
Mark stated that this acquisition will certainly help them to reach more users and also expand their markets. He even stated that the messenger is not receiving much attention in the US since majority of it’s users come from Asian countries such as India. However he stated that Whatsapp CEO Koum and he, himself don’t seek to make revenue by introducing ads in the messenger as Koum assures that the messenger would be free of ads. Mark intends to keep Whatsapp as a standalone app, just like the Instagram app Facebook had acquired for a now meagre 1 Billion$. In addition Jan Koum will join the Facebook Board of Directors.
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Jan Koum, The founder and biggest stake-holder of Whatsapp.[/caption]
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Mark Zuckerberg.[/caption]
The main reason however for buying the messenger is it’s mind-blowing growth rates. It gained 450 million users in a period of 4 years and it adds about a million new users everyday. These rates crush the growth rates of huge rivals such as Twitter, Skype and even Facebook itself. Mark says this is something which has never been seen or done before in the history of the world.
Personally speaking this acquisition will open a whole new era for Facebook and Whatsapp. The way Instagram and Facebook are synced now is just gorgeous. Facebook let Instagram run as it was running earlier and just added some new features over time. This trick worked out amazingly well for them. With them intending to do the same with Whatsapp, the rates will not falter, but grow at a much more rapid pace. The world’s most popular Social Network and one of the world’s most popular Messenger together? Yes please.
For Facebook, it’s just another big acquisition which will boost their user base by a mile. For Whatsapp, its just another day when some tech geek with a brilliant idea becomes a billionaire. For users, it’s the best of both worlds. Personally, I am very keen to see the direction both these companies will take now. Maybe we hear after some months that even Twitter is being bought by Facebook. Only time will tell, but now I am pretty psyched. Are you too?
