$19 Billion for a messaging service? That’s lot expensive, isn’t it? Lets look what Facebook got out of the deal.
WhatsApp Facts
Jan Koum and Brian Acton are the co-founders of the company.
Jan and Brian were previously working at Yahoo.
Brian was Jan’s mentor at Yahoo.
Jan Koum, CEO of Whatsapp is now one of Facebook’s board member and partner with Mark to shape Facebook’s future as well as WhatsApp’s.
Whatsapp has 450 million active users. At least a million install and join Whatsapp each day.
Whatsapp has at least 72% of daily active users – which is a lot when compared to industry standards, which is 10% to 20%.
Whatsapp has only 32 engineers.
Whatsapp was free to download, install and use for 1 year. After that you had to pay $1 for a year.
$19 = $4 + $12 + $3
Whatsapp was acquired for $19 Billion – $4 billion in cash and approximately $12 billion worth of Facebook shares. And additional $3 billion in restricted stock units to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.
Do you think $19 Billion is Justifiable ?
I don’t think Whatsapp can be evaluated to $19 Billion in any ways. But Whatsapp sure helps in Facebook’s mission to make the web open and to connect as many people as possible. Whatsapp has the potential to connect Billions of people. In few years whatsapp can have 3 to 4 Billion active users – according to it’s growth rate. Throwing ads on 3 – 4 Billion people would be foolish, so they might come up with some innovative monetization strategies too. I only wish they don’t sell user data 😛 – Till now Whatsapp had no idea about users age, gender etc, except the mobile number. But now if you use same mobile number even on Facebook, imagine what all they can know about you 😉 I wish whatsapp, Facebook and all their users(including me) all the best for the future!
Facebook has said to continue to maintain Whatsapps principles: No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!
Funny thing is, Brian was looking for a job 4 years back:
Recruiters
networking with recruiters, venture capitalists, playing ultimate frisbee
— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 20, 2009
Got denied by Twitter HQ. That's ok. Would have been a long commute.
— Brian Acton (@brianacton) May 23, 2009
Facebook!
Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure.
— Brian Acton (@brianacton) August 3, 2009
Now he must be thanking all the people who said NO to him. Without them, this glorious day might not have come 😛
“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the BEST, you very often get it.” – William Somerset Maugham