How do you communicate with others who are far away from you? You have only two options, you either call them or send them a message. These are the only two ways that enable you to communicate with others very quickly. But this is possible only today because technology has developed so much. A couple of decades ago all of this was not possible. The most advanced technology to communicate with others back then was cell phones. You could either call people or send them an SMS. But these tasks were not as easy and affordable as they are today. If you remember you had to recharge your phone every time you ran out of balance. Every time you make a call or send an SMS a certain amount was deducted. It didn’t cost much if you make a phone call locally or nationally. But the problem was when you had to call someone who was living in another country.
This was a big deal as international calls were very costly. Not only calls but SMS was also the same. All of this has changed when social media platforms arrived. When social media platforms burst into the picture people found a new way to communicate with each other. They could connect with each other through the internet and communicate through messages. However, this was not as efficient as it sounds. Not everyone has a good internet connection back then. Above all, you needed a computer to use these social networking sites and they were not as user friendly as the ones that are present right now. This has started to change after the arrival of Facebook. It not only allowed people to communicate with each other but also helped to keep tabs on people who are living far away. But it has so many features that made it more complicated.
People needed a medium that was strictly meant for communication. This was very important as smartphone technology was picking up and people were relying more on their cell phones for using the internet. That’s when a game-changing application called Whatsapp was launched. People loved this application because it was very and its main feature was sending messages to anyone through the internet. It is very simple and user-friendly. That’s why it became popular in a very short time. Today it is one of the most used social media platforms across the world. But even today not many people know who owns it. This article is completely about that. But before learning about the owners let’s know a little bit about the application itself.
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History of WhatsApp
WhatsApp is an American application that allows people to send text messages and voice messages. Not only that but it also allows the users to make video calls and voice calls. WhatsApp was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton in the year 2009. Both Jan Koum and Brian Acton worked for Yahoo before setting up their own company. They got this idea after they bought an iPhone. They saw the Appstore and realized the potential the App industry had. After that, they found an iPhone developer and made the initial version of WhatsApp. But things did not go as they planned. The initial versions of the application kept crashing. During this time Jan Koum wanted to drop the idea and wanted to focus on something else. However, Brian Acton was able to convince him to wait for some time. After this iPhone included a push notifications feature. This was a blessing for Whatsapp as they changed it so that people could see notifications if someone made changes to their status.
Due to these changes, WhatsApp Messenger has seen an increase in the number of users. Their user base reached 250,000. The application was seeing success on the iPhone so Jan Koum hired one of his friends to create a version for Blackberry devices. After two months the version was ready. Many people know WhatsApp as a free application but back then it changed the service to a paid one to cover costs. WhatsApp also included the feature of sending photos on the iPhone version of the application. By this time it became one of the most used applications by iPhone users in the US.
Because of this success, it had received an investment from Sequoia capital. Sequoia capital bought 15% of the company’s equity for $8 million. This has boosted the company and they had more than 200 million users by 2013. Seeing this Sequoia Capital invested an additional $50 million into the company. This made the valuation of the company reach $1.5 billion. By the end of that year, WhatsApp has more than 400 million people using it every month.
Who owns WhatsApp?
Now that you have learned about the company let’s take a look at who owns it.
Yes, Facebook is a company that owns WhatsApp. After the tremendous growth, the company was valued at $1.5 billion after the financing round by Sequoia Capital. In 2014 the social media giant has announced that it was acquiring WhatsApp Messenger for $19 billion. At that time it was the largest acquisition in history for a company that is backed by a venture capital firm. Sequoia Capital received $3.5 billion which a lot compared to its initial investment. Facebook $4 billion in cash and other 12 billion in Facebook shares. Both the founders got their shares. After the acquisition people had difficulty in using them at the beginning which led many people to switch to other messaging platforms like Telegram. But things got back to normal after some time. Facebook added additional features like posting stories. Today you can not only send messages or photos but you can also send locations, documents, and videos. Not only that but it is also free to use.
Conclusion
This is the business model of WhatsApp Messenger. It is one of the most used messaging applications in the world. The simple design of WhatsApp is what makes it appealing to its users. Even its usage has decreased a little bit in the west it is still very popular and widely used in the eastern market. To know more about the company you can read the business model of WhatsApp. You can also learn more about other individuals or institutions that own top companies. Click here if you want to know who owns Snapchat.
