$9,900,000,000
Net Worth
Started in (City)
Menlo Park
Started in (Country)
California
Incorporation Date
24th December, 2009
Bankruptcy Date
07th December, 2012
Founders
- Brian Acton and Jan Koum
About
WhatsApp is a text and voice messaging app that launched in 2009. It’s become incredibly popular since then, in no small thanks to its features and flexibility. As a free service, it allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media. WhatsApp’s client application runs on mobile devices but is also accessible from desktop computers, as long as the user’s mobile device remains connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app. It can also take advantage of Wi-Fi and cellular data to make one-on-one or group calls.
Not a lot is known about the origins of the WhatsApp logo. The design appears to have been around since the launch of the app itself, seeming to suggest that it was designed by Koum and Acton themselves during the initial stages of the app’s development and launch. Of course, the logo’s design could have easily been outsourced to a third-party designer as well the programming of the app itself was outsourced, after all.
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging platforms in the age of the internet, is without a doubt, a modern-day success story. From humble beginnings to widespread adaptation, the history of WhatsApp is the quintessential example of a small tech startup turned wildly successful company.
Beginning
Brian Acton and Jan Koum, the founders of WhatsApp, both worked as employees of Yahoo! before leaving the company. Shortly after that, they both applied for jobs at Facebook jobs that had they been accepted to would have likely left them unable to start WhatsApp but were turned down. At the time, Koum was living off of his savings from Yahoo!, with little direction as to where his next career path would take him. In 2009, though, after purchasing an iPhone, Koum had the vision to see that an entire industry was about to form based around mobile apps.
Road to Success
WhatsApp, one of the most popular messaging platforms in the age of the internet, is, without a doubt, a modern-day success story. From humble beginnings to widespread adaptation, the history of WhatsApp is the quintessential example of a small tech startup turned wildly successful company.
It was a bit of a rocky start for WhatsApp, though. After numerous crashes and failures, Koum grew frustrated with the app’s development and reportedly considered giving it up entirely. It was Acton that encouraged Koum to stick it out “a few more months” each time the duo hit a setback.
Luckily for the both of them, the duo did indeed stick it out and saw the app through to its eventual success.
Challenges
In May 2018, Bezos got a video on WhatsApp. The Amazon CEO has said that the MP4 clip allegedly contained malware that began siphoning off data from his iPhone.
According to reports, the clip was sent from an account allegedly belonging to the Saudi Crown Prince. The Saudi government has denied all the allegations as falsehood though.
Telegram’s founder Pavel Durov in a blog post titled Why Using WhatsApp is Dangerous said backdoor bugs leave any and all data on smartphones exposed and accessible to hackers, and in such a case there is no use of end-to-end encryption.
In the post, he had also written that a WhatsApp backdoor allowed hackers to access all data on any phone that had the app installed and running.
This is the most recent controversy in which the messaging app has landed itself in.
According to a report published by Vice, Google is apparently indexing invite links to WhatsApp group chats whose admins would choose to be private.
This basically means that anybody with a basic search on Google can find and join a good range of chats on WhatsApp groups.
The malware then proceeded to exfiltrate the data from his device. This was brought to light when journalist Jamal Khassogi’s murder case was being presented in the United Nations.
Failures
“We were so excited when it launched,” he said. “And so disappointed when no one used it.”
It was a bit of a rocky start for WhatsApp, though. After numerous crashes and failures, Koum grew frustrated with the app’s development and reportedly considered giving it up entirely. It was Acton that encouraged Koum to stick it out “a few more months” each time the duo hit a setback.
Luckily for the both of them, the duo did indeed stick it out and saw the app through to its eventual success.
To cover the primary cost of sending verification texts to users, WhatsApp was changed from a free service to a paid one. In December 2009, the ability to send photos was added to the iPhone version. By early 2011, WhatsApp was one of the top 20 apps at Apple’s U.S. App Store.
Perhaps one of the biggest controversies ever faced by WhatsApp is the hacking of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos account allegedly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In May 2019, WhatsApp was attacked by hackers who installed spyware on a number of victim’s smartphones. The hack, allegedly developed by Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group, injected malware onto WhatsApp user’s phones via a remote-exploit bug in the app’s Voice over IP calling functions. A Wired report noted the attack was able to inject malware via calls to the targeted phone, even if the user did not answer the call. On October 29, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against NSO Group in a San Francisco court, claiming that the alleged cyberattack violated US laws including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). According to WhatsApp, the exploit "targeted at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society" among a total of 1,400 users in 20 countries.
Achievements
- India is by far WhatsApp’s largest market in terms of total number of users
- In May 2014, WhatsApp crossed 50 million monthly active users in India
- In February 2017, WhatsApp reached 200 million monthly active users in India.
- WhatsApp group serve for communicating with students, nurturing social atmosphere in the classroom
Subsidies
- Government Instant Messaging(GIMS)
CEOs
- Jan Koum