WhatsApp Hits 1 Billion Users, Fulfilling Zuckerberg's Promise
- Service's next milestone, making money, is far in the future
- Facebook not yet under pressure to monetize messaging app
Facebook's Next Forays: Messenger and China Opportunities
This article is for subscribers only.
When Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg agreed to pay a staggering $19 billion for WhatsApp Inc. in February 2014, his justification was simple: The messaging service was expected to reach 1 billion users and become essential for a sizable slice of the world population.
Zuckerberg got what he paid for. WhatsApp has more than doubled in users since Facebook bought it and on Monday hit the 1 billion milestone he was so certain about. But the company has only just started thinking about the next step: making money.