Facebook buying Whatsapp in $16 Billion deal

Remember a long time ago we covered the story of Facebook being in talks to acquire Whatsapp. Yeah, the story of Facebook buying whatsapp has been in circulation since quite some time, but this time it has happened for real. Personally, I always knew it was inevitable. The kind of product Whatsapp is it’s really hard to ignore. It’s the sole king in the mobile messaging area. Some of my friends quip often that Whatsapp brought about the death of SMS ( Short message service), and personally it has been quite true for me. All of my friends are on Whatsapp, even those who don’t use Facebook. Facebook is not a personal level product or platform anymore. But Whatsapp is still considered very personal and unique by it’s users. If it stays that way even after this acquisition then Whatsapp will see the numbers rise daily, in every 24 hours 1 million people download the Whatsapp application, it is one of the most downloaded apps on Play store, App store and just the way of life for most of the people!

Facebook buying Whatsapp in $16 Billion deal : The nitty gritty.

According to Facebook’s official statement here,

Acquisition accelerates Facebook’s ability to bring connectivity and utility to the world. Leading mobile messaging company will continue to operate independently and retain its brand. WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum to join Facebook Board of Directors.

The total message bulk volume has almost reached the full volume of SMS provided by worldwide telecom operators, such is the scale of Whatsapp. More than 450 million people use the messaging app each month. Of those people 70% are active on any given day. More than 1 million people register for the service everyday. Such exponential growth had Facebook worried initially, so they released a revamped Messenger app with Mobile integration to make people migrate to their messaging service. But the plan didn’t see much success. This is because of the saturation of the messaging app market. What new can you do with a messenger intended for talking to people. Whatsapp wins because it’s clean, easy to use and because it works. All the time.

Facebook will pay $4 billion in cold hard cash, $_$ ( ring any bells ), read our how to make money online guide, and apart from this they will pay the rest $12 billion in form of Facebook shares. Another additional $3 billion would be given in form of stocks for Whatsapp’s founders and employees over a period of 4 years after the deal is closed.

If Facebook plagues Whatsapp with Facebook integration, or makes it compulsory for Whatsapp users to sign up for a Facebook account then Whatsapp would soon become a bad product. Though the press release says that Whatsapp will continue to operate as an independent brand, how much of this will actually be put in real implementation is something that only time can tell for now.

Facebook buying Whatsapp in $16 Billion deal : The inspiration.

So this is Inspire2rise, we don’t even spend a second here without finding some inspiration even from the darkest of the corners. This news also has an inspirational story behind it.

As some of you may know Brian Acton is the founder of the popular messaging app Whatsapp, he applied for a job in Facebook in 2009 and was turned down. As they say, hardships bring success. Seems like the circle has come full and now it’s Brian’s turn to get the attention he deserves. We would seriously like to say thank you to Facebook, without their kick Brian wouldn’t have emerged this strong with one of the greatest messaging app ever.

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

This tweet of his shows and now the present state shows how resilience and perseverance can break even the hardest barriers and bring the world to your knees!

Facebook buying Whatsapp in $16 Billion deal: Management lessons from Whatsapp.

Whatsapp does one thing, and it does it good. That’s why Whatsapp is a killer product. It dominates all the messaging app industry by it’s word of mouth reputation and simple and lovable user interface. The same message can be applied to real world too. Do one thing. But do it so good, that no one can beat you on that front.

Remember this quote by the legend Bruce Lee ,

Stay inspired to rise fellas. I hope no privacy issues are faced by us after this acquisition. World’s largest mobile number database now in the hands of Facebook, sounds fishy, doesn’t it. Let’s just hope that together both the brands grow well and Whatsapp remains the awesome app it is now.

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