Welcome to Issue #3 of TheBeginnings newsletter. In our Last issue we looked at Instagram, a big consume of its parent Facebook. This week, we will look at its sibling no less in size but made the parent pay a big chunk for it.
WhatsApp, one of the most downloaded apps and the most used messaging app in the world. Founded in 2009, initially as an app to set a status of yourself next to your name, later it added a messaging component to become a text-message replacement. It now has more than 1.5 billion users and continues to grow across the world. Now let’s go back and see how it all started.
The year is 2009
Thoughts about my free iphone app - WhatsApp
May, 2009
i been traveling A LOT and i hated it when people tried to reach me when i am on the plane or out of the country. so i asked myself -- wouldn't it be cool if i just set a status for my iPhone, similar to how you can set a status on yahoo messenger or skype. […] so i spent a couple of months and developed a little tool called WhatsApp - it can let you set a status like "On the flight to munich, send email instead of calling me" or "In Japan for two weeks, my cell there is +81 829 282718"
It was the founder himself promoting his “status setting” app on Flyer’s forum.
WhatsApp 2.0 Submitted
August, 2009
We submitted WhatsApp 2.0 into the App Store last night. It will probably take around two weeks for it to get reviewed and approved.
You will love the feature we added. A lot of you have been asking for it ever since you switched from BlackBerry
The “feature” is the messaging component that made WhatsApp to what we see today.
WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App
November, 2009
WhatsApp is an iPhone to iPhone messenger chat application. It can’t be considered instant messaging like MSN or AIM. It also doesn’t fall under Short Message Service (SMS). Rather, it’s somewhere in between. WhatsApp uses your existing internet connection (EDGE, 3G, Wifi) to send messages across networks, finally appearing on the recipient’s iPhone with the help of Push notification.
This is pretty much the earliest press coverage I could source about WhatsApp. Word of mouth was the biggest driver of downloads till then.
WhatsApp users now send over one billion messages a day
November, 2011
Many group messaging apps have decided to change direction since Apple announced its iMessages offering, but WhatsApp is in the best position to be competitive simply because iMessage is only available on iOS. WhatsApp is currently the #8 paid app on the Apple app store.
WhatsApp achieved an impressive feat 2 years since they launched and as per the article they were in a strong position despite many new entrants.
Facebook buys WhatsApp for $19 billion
February, 2014
Facebook (FB) said it will pay WhatsApp $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in stock. WhatsApp's founders and staff will be eligible for for another $3 billion in stock grants to be paid out if they remain employed by Facebook for four years. Koum will also join Facebook's board of directors.
At 5 years old with 450 million users WhatsApp got acquired by Facebook.
WhatsApp the app operating independently from its parent product Facebook continues to grow and has since become an indispensable app for messaging across the world.
That concludes our issue. Please share with me any feedback you have. mail@avinoth.com. I’d love to hear your opinions / suggestions.