From humble beginnings, WhatsApp has grown exponentially thanks to its ease of use and excellent features. However, it wasn't an easy climb to the top of the messaging charts for this remarkable app.
WhatsApp was launched in January 2009 by two former Yahoo! developers, Brian Acton and Jan Koum. After the pair left Yahoo! in September 2007 they spent some time travelling and, as Internet rumour has it, frequently found it difficult to stay in touch reliably with friends and family.
Once they returned home they applied for a number of jobs, one of which was at Facebook HQ. Sadly, or rather thankfully,they were turned down and about that time Koum living off his saving from Yahoo! purchased an iPhone and immediately saw the app industry as the way forward.
Koum began exploring the possibility of developing an app that would allow mobile users to interact and communicate with each other better than with what was currently available. Teaming up with Acton,they began to develop the foundation of WhatsApp, which was to sound like 'What's up'.
It was a rocky start for the app, as frequentcrashes and failures made the development process difficult to gain ground. With every negative impact, Acton's encouragement helped the duo ride out the storms and finally release the app to a welcome audience.
With financial help to the tune of $250,000 the now growing team of WhatsApp developers took the app from an audience of just dozens to over 200 million by the end of 2012. This staggering growth certainly gained a lot of attention and shortly after, Facebook became interested in buying WhatsApp.
In 2014 Facebook (who originally turned Acton and Koum away when they applied for jobs) bought WhatsApp for the princely sum of $19 billion, not a bad investment if you were one of the few to originally support WhatsApp.
In 2016 Facebook announced that WhatsApp would be free to install and use, dropping the $1 annual subscription it had historically charged. From there, the app has become one of the most popular messaging services and is continually growing and improving.
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