Yesterday evening, news emerged that Facebook purchased the instant-messaging service ‘Whatsapp’ in a deal said to be worth around $19bn.
Whatsapp is the only internet based app that gets more engagement and a higher percent of people, daily, than Facebook itself. Now there’s a fact!
With over 450 million monthly users, Whatsapp is currently sitting top of the tree. Skype, WeChat, Viber, and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) also make up the top 5 of most monthly users.
Despite the purchase of Instagram in 2012, this will be the largest single acquisition Facebook have performed in all of their 10-year history. It seems as though Facebook are going all out though, having also had a reported offer of $3bn for direct photo messaging app, Snapchat in 2013. This has, in fact, made people question the intentions of Facebook. Rather than internally growing, it is said that Facebook are trying to “buy growth” by purchasing popular applications [such as Instagram].
You can only survive in the Social Media industry if you are creative, innovation and, of course, popular!
Is this a “panic buy”? Have Facebook ran out of internal ideas?
Jan Koun, founder of Whatsapp and former Yahoo engineer is now set to join Facebook’s Board of Directors. The Ukrainian and his employees will also receive $3bn [£1.8bn] as part of the deal.
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Mark Hamilton Taylor
► My personal goal is to make an authentic difference to society.
► My professional goal and passion is developing people and businesses.
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