In a play to control messaging on phones and the Internet, Facebook has acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion. Whatsapp Price Facebook: That's a stunning sum for the five-year old firm. But WhatsApp has been able to hold its weight against messaging heavyweights like Twitter (TWTR), Google (GOOG) as well as Microsoft's (MSFT) Skype. WhatsApp has upwards of 450 million individuals, and it is including an added million users everyday.
Whatsapp Price Facebook
Describing WhatsApp's soaring development, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on a conference call, "No person in the background of the world has done anything like that."
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging application for smartphones, according to OnDevice Research.
Buying WhatsApp will only strengthen Facebook's already solid position in the congested messaging world. Messenger, Facebook's a standalone messaging app for mobile devices, is second just to WhatsApp in its share of the mobile phone market.
Comparable to typical message messaging, WhatsApp enables people to attach through their mobile phone numbers. But instead of racking up texting charges, WhatsApp sends out the actual messages over mobile broadband. That makes WhatsApp particularly economical for interacting with people overseas.
That kind of mobile messaging services have actually ended up being wildly prominent, with two times as many messages sent out over the mobile Web than via traditional texts, according to Deloitte. However the majority of the messaging market's income is still driven by text messaging.
On the conference call, Facebook claimed it is not seeking to drive revenue from WhatsApp in the near term, rather concentrating on growth. Zuckerberg claimed he does not anticipate attempting to aggressively expand WhatsApp's revenue till the service reaches "billions" of users.
WhatsApp currently charges a dollar a year after giving customers their first year of use for free. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum stated on the teleconference that WhatsApp's company model is already effective.
That indicates Facebook acquired WhatsApp to include value to its existing messaging solutions, in addition to for the long-lasting capacity of the company.
Facebook got Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 for comparable factors: As young social media network customers moved in the direction of photo-sharing, Facebook wished to scoop up what might have at some point become a large rival.
Like Instagram, WhatsApp will work as a self-governing system within Facebook, with all the existing workers being available in as part of the bargain.
Facebook (FB) stated it will pay WhatsApp $4 billion in money as well as $12 billion in supply. WhatsApp's owners and staff will certainly be eligible for for one more $3 billion in supply gives to be paid if they continue to be utilized by Facebook for four years. Koum will certainly likewise join Facebook's board of directors.
