Who owns WhatsApp?

Facebook (now Meta) owns WhatsApp. The firm purchased WhatsApp for nearly $22 billion in 2014, making it the largest venture-backed firm in history.

With greater than 5 billion downloads and counting, WhatsApp is undoubtedly one of many most downloaded apps of all time.

Of this number, greater than 2 billion active customers use the app at least as soon as a month.

WhatsApp is additionally popular amongst businesses, as WhatsApp Business has been downloaded greater than 500 million times.

Although WhatsApp is aware of each one of its billions of users, at least by phone number, not all of its customers know who owns WhatsApp.

So, who owns WhatsApp?

 Facebook (now known as Meta)

WhatsApp was based by the duo of Jan Koum and Brian Acton on February 24, 2009. However, it was not the free cross-platform instant messenger and VOIP service it has now morphed into.

It was initially designed as an app to allow you to know what’s up with your contacts by showing their present status, like the place they are, what they’re doing, etc.

With time, chance, and the arrival of push notifications, it gradually transformed into what it’s today.

Seeing its brilliant efficiency and widespread adoption, Facebook (now Meta) offered to purchase WhatsApp for nearly $22 billion in 2014, its largest acquisition and the largest venture-backed firm in history.

Two years prior, in 2012, Facebook additionally purchased Instagram for $1 billion from founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

Since 2019, Will Cathcart has piloted the affairs of WhatsApp as CEO and introduced about many enhancements and updates to the messaging platform.

For instance, customers can now undelete chat messages, obtain and use WhatsApp for Windows, transfer chat historical past from Android to iPhone, block different users, create teams of 512 people, construct their very personal Communities, amongst a number of others.

And what’s Meta?

The parent firm of Facebook and WhatsApp

Meta Platforms’ name factors towards the phrase Metaverse, a mixture of meta and universe.

It represents Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of utilizing digital and augmented actuality to drive social connections. The Menlo Park conglomerate describes itself as a social technology company.

To date, Meta, which additionally owns Instagram, has acquired greater than ninety companies, together with startups and potential competitors, with WhatsApp as its largest acquisition yet.