This February Facebook spent $19bn buying the messaging app, Whatsapp.
What is it? Its a smartphone app, that allows its users to send text, audio and image messages virtually for free. Hurrah! (Unless youre a phone network exec, who might well be sobbing into their latte for that lost text message revenue right now )
$19bn??? You heard right. The app has around 450 million active users at the moment, and its growing fast. More importantly perhaps, is that one of their biggest growth areas is in the Asian market, where Facebook have yet to achieve their usual market dominance. You can see the logic
Whats so special about Whatsapp? Well, its pretty much gimmick-free. They are super-hot on privacy, and currently dont have any advertising on the app at all, so its really user friendly. By integrating with an app like this, Facebook can keep their usual advertising revenue streams going while allowing users a smooth-running, noise-free messaging experience.
Whats next? There has been some buzz around the introduction of permission based advertising through Whatsapp and Facebook, but with much tighter controls and more anonymity for the user. Does this go against Whatsapps tough stance on advertising, or offer users a much needed solution to text message ads with no opt-out option and relentless emails?
The proof will be in the pudding…
You can find out more about Whatsapp here
