Facebook has acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp has upwards of 450 million users, and it is adding an additional million users every day.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app for Smartphone, according to OnDevice Research.
WhatsApp currently charges a dollar a year after giving customers their first year of use for free. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said on the conference call that WhatsApp\’s business model is already successful.
That indicates Facebook bought WhatsApp to add value to its existing messaging services, as well as for the long-term potential of the company.
WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. Users can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. They can use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And users can count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication.
Few recent acquisitions from Facebook:
|
SL
|
Acquisition date |
Company |
Business |
Value (USD) |
|
1 |
09-Apr-12 |
Photo sharing | $1b | |
|
2 |
13-Apr-12 |
Tagtile | Customer loyalty app | undisclosed |
|
3 |
15-May-12 |
Lightbox.com | Photo sharing | undisclosed |
|
4 |
21-May-12 |
Karma | Social Gifting | undisclosed |
|
5 |
18-Jun-12 |
Face.com | Face Recognition Platform | $100m |
|
6 |
14-Jul-12 |
Spool | Mobile bookmarking and sharing content | undisclosed |
|
7 |
20-Jul-12 |
Acrylic Software | RSS app Pulp + secure database app Wallet | undisclosed |
|
8 |
24-Aug-12 |
Threadsy |
Threadsy is a social aggregator, Maker of Social Marketing Tool Swaylo |
undisclosed |
|
9 |
28-Feb-13 |
Atlas | Atlas Advertiser Suite | less than $100 million |
|
10 |
Mar-13 |
osmeta | Mobile software | |
|
11 |
14-Mar-13 |
Hot Studio | Design agency | |
|
12 |
23-Apr-13 |
Spaceport | Cross-platform Game framework | |
|
13 |
25-Apr-13 |
Parse | Mobile app backends | |
|
14 |
18-Jul-13 |
Monoidics | Automatic verification software | |
|
15 |
12-Aug-13 |
Jibbigo | Speech translation app | |
|
16 |
13-Oct-13 |
Onavo | Mobile analytics | |
|
17 |
17-Dec-13 |
SportStream | Sports Conversation Analysis | |
|
18 |
08-Jan-14 |
Little Eye Labs | Performance analysis and monitoring tools for Android | |
|
19 |
13-Jan-14 |
Branch | Web Conversation Platform | $15m |
|
20 |
19-Feb-14 |
Mobile instant messaging | $19b |
By Akshatha Karthik
image source: youthcrash.com
