Incase you did not know, Brian Acton and Jan Koum founders of WhatsApp were veteran employees of Yahoo for 20 years. You can see the that in the quality of the App.

WhatsApp is a messaging app on smart phones which allows you to chat with any contact on your phone across the world using Internet (Wifi or 3G and so on). Thus saving users a lot, that they may have to pay for telecom operators for SMS or messages.

Lets analyze some of the key reasons why they became extremely popular and successful.
  • SMS or Messaging can cost you a lot, especially if you need to message people across the Globe. One time license fee of 1 USD is totally eclipsed by telecom charges
  • Their interface is extremely cool. For example, in Iphones, their chat interface is the same as iPhone message App which uses telecom line.
  • Group Chats. My Wife uses WhatsApp to connect to her college and childhood friends.
  • The ability to send Photos and Videos on your phone and share it across with your friends.
  • Once you install WhatsApp, it automatically lists all your contacts who are also on WhatsApp
  • They do not show Ads in their App, which most others do.

Below's a snapshot of their interface in IPhone. You can realize how cool their App is when you use it. More details on WhatsApp at http://www.whatsapp.com


Yes, there may be some competitive Apps around. But, i don't think anyone is any close to WhatsApp.

The only source of income is the 1 USD one time fee, when you install WhatsApp. With the population of world at 7 Billion, that puts their max potential revenues at 1 Billion considering smart phone usage may be at 16% or so in near Future.

World Population expected by 2100 is 100 Billion and smart phone user base ratios are not going to go lower

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