When Mark Zuckerberg said (in 2012) that he wanted to connect people and bring them closer, he was not just saying something that sounded grand but something that he intended to achieve in the coming years. By acquiring WhatsApp at a whopping price of USD 19 billion, Zuckerberg is indeed on his way of owning a global communication network that is second to none. The last major acquisition conducted by Facebook was for Instagram for a mere one billion dollar on April 9, 2012. Over the years, Facebook has acquired more than 45 major companies, making it one of the fastest growing conglomerate in the world, similar to Disney. On an average these two companies today namely WhatsApp and Facebook share about one billion photos and 30 billion messages among users every single day.
Here is the Mark Zuckerberg post on his Facebook timeline –
A huge social platform on its own, WhatsApp has more than 450 million active users who subscribe to the digital application. In a short span of five years, WhatsApp has completely revolutionized personal communication by enabling users to share messages, photos, video and even audio messages without national and international barriers. Established by American Brian Acton and Ukrainian Jan Koum, WhatsApp can now look forward to a bigger growth story in collaboration with Facebook. How this collaboration will change the way we communicate on social platforms, only time will tell. But with the growing popularity of WhatsApp, this collaboration is sure to redefine the way people communicate and express themselves on social media channels.
Some interesting facts –
1. The acquisition price of WhatsApp id equal to two Stapes and two Instagram combined.
2. Daily, WhatApp process four times as many messages as there are people on the planet.
3. WhatsApp added one million users every day for the past nine months.
4. WhatsApp has 2.5 times more users than Twitter.
5. According to market value, WhatsApp is the 200th largest company in America.
About Author
Hitesh Dhawan
Founder of Neuronimbus, A digital evangelist, entrepreneur, mentor, digital tranformation expert. Two decades of providing digital solutions to brands around the world.