If you see someone with a smartphone, there is a good chance that they might have WhatsApp installed. After all, while the app itself might be a paid app (for iOS it requires upfront payment), it allows users to send messages to friends and family all over the world for free, hold group conversations and exchange various media as long as an internet connection is available. Plus with a report by WhatsApp back in October of 2011 that they are serving 1 billion messages a day, it just seems like a recipe for monetization, and with Facebook having acquired Instagram not too long ago, could WhatsApp be next on their list?
This is according to anonymous sources who claim that Facebook and WhatsApp are currently in talks, with the possibility of an acquisition on the table. Of course, with nothing concrete to prove this at the moment, we suggest you take it with a grain of salt for now. However as the folks at TechCrunch have noted, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg believes that the next big thing could be mobile, and with WhatsApp currently available in a variety of different countries, it could help with Facebook’s expansion into emerging markets as well. The flipside is what will Facebook do with WhatsApp if they do acquire it?
While the app itself is paid, could Facebook be looking at a way to monetize it as they did with their social network website through ads? There aren’t many people who appreciate the Facebook ads as it is, and the thought of ads invading our IMs, well, that probably won’t sit well with many (including ourselves). Either way, like we said earlier, we’ll take this with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys think? Should Facebook acquire WhatsApp, what use would Facebook have for the instant messaging app?
04. It was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. At first, only students from Hardvard could join the service, but over time more users were allowed to join. Today, Facebook remains the leader in social networking, but most importantly, it is the top online identity provider as the overwhelming majority of Facebook users have registered using their real identities.
Culled from Ubergizmo