Facebook Could Possibly Buy Top Chat App WhatsApp

App's users send 300 billion messages per month.

WhatsApp, the creator of the hugely popular cross-platform mobile chat application, has apparently been locked in talks with Facebook regarding a potential acquisition. TechCrunch sources revealed the potential purchase but didn't get any information about a price or how advanced the talks may be.

Since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has proved to be popular among BlackBerry, Android and iOS users due to its depth. It delivers text messages, images, audio and video messages, as well as a group chat option. The application, which doesn't feature any advertisements, boasts around 100 million daily users, with the app itself having a presence in 250 countries. It's currently free on Android and requires a small fee for iOS users. It's remained on the top-selling/downloaded app position in a majority of regions for months.

WhatsApp sees users collectively send 10 billion messages per day, which equals 300 billion messages per month. The latter figure is what iOS' iMessage managed to accumulate over a whole year.

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sliem , December 3, 2012 11:04 PM

How is it free in Android but not in iOS?
How about Blackberry?
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mrmaia , December 3, 2012 11:15 PM

The application, which doesn't feature any advertisements [...]

This is one of the reasons for its success. If FB buys it, there you go with a ton of "featured" texts, your personal stuff and files being forwarded to third parties and boom! WhatsApp fades into oblivion.
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weierstrass , December 3, 2012 11:25 PM

sliemHow is it free in Android but not in iOS?How about Blackberry?

It's not free, it is a free trial. Go to Settings -> Account -> Payment info and you will see the expiration date. Android users will probably have to start paying per year.
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dotaloc , December 3, 2012 11:26 PM

mrmaia
The application, which doesn't feature any advertisements [...]
This is one of the reasons for its success. If FB buys it, there you go with a ton of "featured" texts, your personal stuff and files being forwarded to third parties and boom! WhatsApp fades into oblivion.

The hope of a buying company is that the new advertisements aren't annoying enough to offset the inconvenience of switching (with all your friends) to another place for chat.
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mrmaia , December 3, 2012 11:49 PM

dotalocThe hope of a buying company is that the new advertisements aren't annoying enough to offset the inconvenience of switching (with all your friends) to another place for chat.

Except when that company is Facebook and they need to climb back from a deep stock price hole.
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olaf , December 4, 2012 12:38 AM

F* Facebook... they are ruining everything ... frigging hate having to do anything with them,....
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stevelord , December 4, 2012 1:35 AM

Nobody in my social circles use this that I know of. I was about to get it for staff until iOS 5 came out and introduced iMessage.
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azraa , December 4, 2012 1:43 AM

Not defending facebook or anything, but if they get away with this crap, and the devs of WhatsApp sell out, it will probably make facebook shares sky rocket their prices. Sure this news seems nice for facebook investors.
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shqtth , December 4, 2012 2:08 AM

Do not sell to facebook, they screw up everything !

Also why would I want facebook to spy on my text messages?

Don't run a good thing. Start Charging those Android bums. Not fair I had to pay $1 for it and the Android users get it for free.
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Pherule , December 4, 2012 2:13 AM

WhatsApp annoys the hell out of me. Almost everyone I know uses it, but it doesn't work on a computer, which is the only platform I'm willing to use. I ended up installing BlueStacks, but it's a bit buggy, very memory hoggish, and I have to leave it open to receive messages on WhatsApp.

I wish everyone would just use something that's cross-platform compatible, like Skype. Oh well, maybe if Facebook acquires WhatsApp it'll become natively usable on PC, even if it's only browser based. I'd much rather have it in a browser than inside an Android emulator.
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dthx , December 4, 2012 3:59 AM

WhatsApp offers a decent and ads free service for a reasonable price. Like many people, I prefer to pay 1€/year than have a robot scanning my private messages to push ads on me...
If Facebook's psychopath CEO buys it, I'll uninstall it...

shqtthNot fair I had to pay $1 for it and the Android users get it for free.

It's only free for the first years, after that, Android and Win8 users pay too...
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anonymous@guest , December 4, 2012 7:16 AM

is ads free in the beginning just to get it so popular so big shark like Facebook or twitter will buy it off with billions dollar in cash.
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anonymous@guest , December 4, 2012 7:17 AM

is ads free in the beginning just to get it so popular so big shark like Facebook or twitter will buy it off with billions dollar in cash.
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darkavenger123 , December 4, 2012 7:31 AM

If FB buys it, then it'll surely die a quick death with tons of FB forced feature implement into it. Looks like it's time to move to LINE or something else.
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kryzzay , December 4, 2012 7:59 AM

I uninstalled last week from constantly getting spammed with lottery winnings and other crap.
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assasin32 , December 4, 2012 8:09 AM

Never heard of this app and I am still in school. Oh well guess I am not the targeted audience for this junk. I do just fine with calling people and talking to them face to face preferably. Rather not deal with texting when I can.
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kryzzay , December 4, 2012 11:33 AM

assasin32Never heard of this app and I am still in school. Oh well guess I am not the targeted audience for this junk. I do just fine with calling people and talking to them face to face preferably. Rather not deal with texting when I can.

Congratulations. Want a medal?
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infernocy , January 10, 2013 7:29 PM

it seems facebook and jay wilson have a lot of common features

Facebook Could Possibly Buy Top Chat App WhatsApp

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