Facebook is close to sealing a deal and this is going to be in the right direction like Instagram which is adding more clients to its kitty.
Facebook knows that it has more than 1 Billion users and to get another Billion, it needs to get the same by targeting the mobile users as majority of people access internet through mobile.
What is Whatsapp?
- It is a multiplatform mobile messaging app. The app, which is built on Erlang, has the potential and ambition to grow more and wants to provide “a great mobile messaging system for a global market, regardless of your handset.”
- It was serving 1 billion messages per day as in Oct 2011.
- Whatsapp is a paid app. And obviously, having a paid, ad-free service is an expansion of Facebook’s business model beyond advertising.
- It’s currently the No. 2 paid app in Apple’s App Store (U.S. version), where it sells for $0.99. (Although there are often sales on the app where it gets discounted or given away.) On Google’s Play Android store, it is free for the first year, and then $0.99 per year thereafter. Google indicates that the Android app has had between 100 million and 500 million installs to date.
- Whatsapp is backed by Sequoia.
Facebook Strategy
Facebook is all out to capture complete internet mobile users and no doubt one has to be proactive enough to keep ahead of its competitors or gobble them to stay ahead in the competition.
