Although the year is still in the beginning, Facebook buying WhatsApp for $19 billion could easily pass as the news of the year. The giant social media network is acquiring one of the prominent stars in the field.
There are so many bewildering aspects to the deal; primarily, the huge purchasing value, and the $19 billion question … why?
Big deals are not strange in the social media industry, but this come as the biggest of them all. MySpace was bought by News Corporation back in 2005 for $580 million.
Google did it in 2006 and bought Youtube for $1.65 billion. Facebook itself did it recently when it bough Instagram for $1 billion.
A lot of commentators in the industry are calling it “a crazy deal.” There is even a Tumblr feed listing a number of things that are cheaper than WhatsApp. For examples, a colony on Mars would cost around $6 billion, adopting all homeless animals in the US would cost only $1.2 billion, or even better, vaccinating every kid in the world against measles would cost around $3 billion.
Nevertheless, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder seems to be satisfied with the WhatsApp deal, he is even thinking that WhatsApp is “worth more" than the paid amount.
What would Facebook make with WhatsApp is the biggest mystery in the whole deal. WhatsApp has more than 450 million users with 70 percent of them active on daily basis. According to different reports, the traffic on the application is approaching the traffic of SMSs of the entire global telecom industry.
The official statements are still ambiguous, full of nice wishes and looking forward to nice partnerships.
Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook account, “I’m thrilled that they chose to work with us. I’m looking forward to what Facebook and WhatsApp can do together, and to developing great new mobile services that give people even more options for connecting.”
“I knew Jan Koum, the co-founder of the app, for a long time. We both share the vision of making the world more open and connected. I’m particularly happy that Jan has agreed to join the Facebook board and partner with me to shape Facebook’s future as well as WhatsApp’s,” he added.
However, there are those who look at the deal with a suspicious eye. For them, it is a scheme from Facebook to get its hands on the data of millions of users around the globe which will allow it to sell it to advertisers for a hefty reward. Also, conspiracy theorists are always there, they think that Facebook will sell the data to intelligence services! An Arabic news channel recently said we should abandon WhatsApp, as it is nothing but a tool for espionage and our data is traded on the table of giant companies and global intelligence services.
To be honest, It is hard to take a stand on such debates.
What interests me as a normal user is what such partnership would give me. WhatsApp is a great tool. It is very popular in the whole world, and in Saudi Arabia. It takes you closer to your family, friends, and can even be used for business purposes. What will Facebook add or take from it, is still an unanswered question.
• Twitter: @ smaldosari
