With mobile photo sharing on lock, what will Facebook try to conquer next? How about mobile chat? A report from Tech Crunch says the social network is looking to purchase Whatsapp, the multiplatform mobile messaging app founded in 2009 by former Yahoo! employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum.
Though neither company will confirm nor deny the report, the purchase of WhatsApp would be a boon for Facebook. Here's why:
1. WhatsApp has become wildy succesful as a paid app. It's currently the number one app in 114 countries and a top-five paid app in over 140 countries.
Of course, there's always the possiblity of Facebook going the Google route—purchasing the paid service, rolling it into an existing service (Facebook Messenger), and making it free for all to use. But when people cite you as the cause of an entire country's drop in SMS usage, why mess with a good thing?
[via Tech Crunch]
