They’re splashing the cash in a big way on the messaging service, but why have they spent so much? This handy chart explains it all
By now you’ve surely heard the news that your beloved WhatsApp is being bought up by your seemingly less beloved Facebook, and you’ve probably also heard that they’re handing over a huge pile of cash for the privilege.
The reported $19 billion that they are handing over is raising a few eyebrows, and with Facebook’s shares falling about 5% after the announcement, it seems that investors are a bit skeptical too. One of the main reasons for that is because fewer people in the United States use the messaging platform than we do in Europe, and therefore it’s a slight unknown in that regard. We’re sure that the co-founder of WhatsApp Jan Koum won’t mind too much though, as he sealed the deal with Mark Zuckerberg outside the welfare office where he used to collect his food stamps before he hit it big with the app.
Still, Zuckerberg & Co. are no fools, and the guys at Forbes have shown in one chart the main reason why they’ve decided to shell out so much on a company that has less than 50 employees. Much like Melissa Joan Hart in her role as Clarissa in her mid ’90s Nickelodeon show, this should explain it all.
That growth is something they want to tap in to, in particular in markets where Facebook isn’t as big such as Asia and other parts of Europe, or amongst younger demographics where they seem to be losing a little bit of ground. Zuckerberg views Facebook’s messaging app as something totally different (not in real time, only for Facebook friends) and this move is a further step towards trying to tap in to your mobile platform and have you do everything you normally do on your phone every day through Facebook, as we saw with the launch of Paper just a few weeks back. Much of their ad revenue comes through mobile now, where users tend to be more engaged then on the desktop site, so furthering their control over your life and first-born child phone makes financial sense.
With all this buying up of other companies, Mark is beginning to remind us of the ’80s Guy from that episode of Futurama, except he needs to get himself a suit and stop wearing those hoodies all the time. Now that’s what we call a hostile makeover…
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