A day before, Facebook announced that it has acquired Whatsapp, a cross-platform messaging app with a huge user base, for a whooping 19 billion dollars. Unlike most acquirements, this one came out of the blues with no rumor pointing at such a deal taking place.
The acquirement of Whatsapp marks the biggest acquirement Facebook has done till date. According to rumors, Facebook had tried to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion but the offer was turned down. This might be one of the reasons why Facebook bid so high to ensure that the deal went through.
Contextually speaking, $19 billion can let Lenovo acquire Motorola 6 times over and the same amount of money can help Microsoft buy Nokia 6 times. I think this analogy is enough to help you understand the gravity of the number.
Facebook was losing its charm among the youth generation who keeps connected with their friends using Whatsapp, Snapchat and similar messaging apps. Facebook had attempted to compete with Whatsapp for the mobile space by adding an option to use its Messenger even without having to sign in to their Facebook account.
Facebook currently has a user base of 1.25 billion while Whatsapp enjoys a healthy 450 million people’s attention. Whatsapp came into the messaging arena a few years back and right now, has outpaced every competitor in the market with its simplicity and reliability.
Whatsapp users have started raising their concerns about what will will happen to their privacy once the acquirement goes through. These fears can be understood by the fact that a major change in privacy policy of Instagram left many users bewildered over the change brought in by the acquirement of the app by Facebook.
In related news, Whatsapp has pushed out an update which now allows users to hide their last seen status. Though the update is now available on Play Store yet, you can head over to Whatsapp’s official website to sideload the apk.
The acquirement of Whatsapp marks the biggest acquirement Facebook has done till date. According to rumors, Facebook had tried to acquire Snapchat for $3 billion but the offer was turned down. This might be one of the reasons why Facebook bid so high to ensure that the deal went through.
Contextually speaking, $19 billion can let Lenovo acquire Motorola 6 times over and the same amount of money can help Microsoft buy Nokia 6 times. I think this analogy is enough to help you understand the gravity of the number.
Facebook was losing its charm among the youth generation who keeps connected with their friends using Whatsapp, Snapchat and similar messaging apps. Facebook had attempted to compete with Whatsapp for the mobile space by adding an option to use its Messenger even without having to sign in to their Facebook account.
Facebook currently has a user base of 1.25 billion while Whatsapp enjoys a healthy 450 million people’s attention. Whatsapp came into the messaging arena a few years back and right now, has outpaced every competitor in the market with its simplicity and reliability.
In related news, Whatsapp has pushed out an update which now allows users to hide their last seen status. Though the update is now available on Play Store yet, you can head over to Whatsapp’s official website to sideload the apk.
