Recently, Facebook acquired popular instant messaging application, WhatsApp for a whopping sum of 19 billion dollars. Sure, WhatsApp is very widely used, with almost 600 million users worldwide, but Facebook also has its very own Facebook Messenger for instant messaging. Many have been considering the reasons as to why the acquisition cost Facebook so much.
WhatsApp is extremely popular and has billions of message exchanges each day. It is available to users across the globe and boasts of almost 600 million users worldwide. Moreover, it has a dynamic user count of 450 million per month, with almost 70 percent of these clients being dynamic regularly. New users, also in order of millions, get added to WhatsApp each day. WhatsApp proves to be the app of choice for many users who communicate with friends and family regularly using the popular application.
After the acquisition, rumors are abuzz that WhatsApp will soon introduce voice calling features. This would essentially mean that all WhatsApp users will be provided with a free, new calling option and this will dramatically reduce costs both for businesses and individuals.
A statement had been issued by Zacks Equity Research, which claimed that WhatsApp will be launching these voice calling features in the second quarter of the year. If WhatsApp does release these features, backed by its support from Facebook, it is expected to cross the threshold of a billion users globally. At the present rate at which WhatsApp is growing, it is estimated to reach this target in the middle of 2015. If it does manage to do so, WhatsApp will oust China Telecom in terms of number of clients served. WhatsApp will also threaten all major telecom carriers including the likes of AT&T.
Bloomberg had reported that in 2013, telecom operators had lost 32 billion dollars in revenue to new instant messaging applications. With WhatsApp’s new and free administration, it is anticipated that with voice calls, telecom operators are set to lose more of their market share. WhatsApp services are free to be used in the first year and are charged at 99 cents for subsequent years. This is virtually zero cost as compared to traditional telecom methods.
It is strongly believed that the new WhatsApp administration will further disrupt earnings for telecom operators. Organizations for the transfer of information created 120 billion dollars from informing content in 2013. As duties for administrators for information keep changing rapidly, the contribution that voice calls makes to their revenue is diminishing. Telecom administrators and operators, boosted by the wide number of applications which require data services are profiting from their internet services. However, most services offered are basic with little regulation within the internet operations.
Backed by Facebook, it is only expected that WhatsApp will very soon launch voice calling features. Such features are already available across many other apps and this includes Facebook itself. This leads to stronger beliefs that WhasApp will soon follow suit. If it does so, WhatsApp will become the undisputed top instant messaging application worldwide.