In February 2014, Facebook purchased the messaging service WhatsApp for $19 billion. The acquisition price was staggering for an app that made little money and was largely popular outside the United States. Show Now, newly published confidential Facebook emails and charts show exactly why CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent a small fortune for the messaging app. For months, the company had been tracking WhatsApp obsessively using Onavo, a VPN and data analytics app, whose data showed that the messaging app was not just a rising competitor, but a potential Facebook killer. The “highly confidential” charts — part of a trove of documents released today by the United Kingdom’s digital, culture, media, and sport (DCMS) parliamentary committee — show WhatsApp was a growing juggernaut in the messaging app wars of the early 2010s. The previously sealed documents, obtained by the DCMS committee from an app developer who is currently suing Facebook in a California court, shed light on a variety of previously unknown-to-the-public practices used by the social network between 2012 and 2015, including providing favorable, whitelisted access to user data to large app partners. The emails and papers, obtained by the plaintiff in legal discovery, also show that Zuckerberg once considered charging developers for access to user data, though that policy was never implemented. While Facebook (and then newly Facebook-acquired Instagram) topped Onavo’s US mobile apps charts for iPhone, WhatsApp was growing steadily in its percentage of market reach, beating out popular mobile apps including Tumblr, Foursquare, Vine, and Google+, while encroaching on Pinterest. And in Facebook, Onavo saw an opportunity of its own. The company, which started out as a data compression and VPN outfit, quickly proved its value as a data analytics provider, tracking app usage across hundreds of thousands of devices. In identifying mobile usage trends, Onavo became a crucial tool for Facebook to survey its competition. The only issue? The data wasn’t exclusive to Facebook. But that all changed in October 2013, when Facebook purchased Onavo for $100 million. By acquiring Onavo and turning it into a private tool, the company took away one of the best avenues for understanding mobile trends outside of Facebook’s ecosystem. The social network was then free to track app usage and trends even at very early stages. If a potential Facebook killer was on the rise, Facebook could hypothetically spot it before anyone else. Five months later, in February of 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg oversees the four most downloaded apps of the decade The four most downloaded apps of the decade are all owned by Facebook, according to app tracker App Annie. Facebook, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram top App Annie's list, which was published on Monday. The most downloaded app between 2010 and 2019 was Facebook's main app, followed by the company's Facebook Messenger app. WhatsApp came third, and Instagram fourth. Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1bn (£760m), and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19bn. The App Annie ranking highlights just how much power and control Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has. The four main apps that Zuckerberg oversees boast more than a billion users each. "It is not ok," said Taha Yasseri, a senior research fellow in computation science at the Oxford Internet Institute. "One company owning four of the most popular social networking and communication apps, at best, can be described as a data monopoly." Mr Yasseri added: "Combined, the data from multiple platforms can lead to an extremely high level of precision in modelling our traits and behaviours. This amount of power should be regulated." The UK "should tackle dominance of online giants," the UK's competition regulator said on Wednesday. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) raised concerns that people using these platforms may not be in control of their data. Snapchat and Skype came 5th and 6th, followed by TikTok and UC Browser, which is owned by China's Alibaba. YouTube came 9th and Twitter was in 10th place. Eight of the top 10 apps are owned by US corporations, while two are owned by Chinese firms. "Mobile has been at the heart of major changes in consumer behaviour this decade," wrote Adithya Venkatraman, a markets insights manager at App Annie, in a blog.
The most downloaded game of the decade was Subway Surfers, which is made by Denmark firm Kiloo. Candy Crush Saga beat Temple Run 2 to second place, while Clash of Clans came in fifth. "Communication and social media apps are consumer favourites, accounting for seven of the top 10 apps by downloads this decade," wrote Mr Venkatraman. "In terms of consumer spend, video streaming and music apps were well represented, with Netflix, Pandora Music and Tencent Video all appearing in the top five." Tinder ranked second on the highest spend list, behind Netflix. Why did Mark Zuckerberg buy WhatsApp and Instagram?The problem was that Zuckerberg's primary motivation for buying WhatsApp in the first place was to fend it off as a competitive threat, according to mounting evidence from antitrust regulators like the US Federal Trade Commission. Facebook executives even fretted about how WhatsApp might threaten Facebook's business ...
Why did Facebook takeover Instagram?But purchasing Instagram turned out to be one of the best tech acquisitions of all time, helping secure Facebook's dominance in social media for years to come. It did that by quickly imprinting its influence on the famously simple photo-sharing app, adding new features that helped it grow to more than 1 billion users.
Why did Facebook and WhatsApp merger?WhatsApp and Mobile Users
WhatsApp helped fuel Facebook's growth in developing markets where internet connectivity is sparse, and WhatsApp is widely used. Facebook then gained access to these mobile user bases.
How did Facebook acquire Instagram and WhatsApp?Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for $1bn (£760m), and WhatsApp in 2014 for $19bn. The App Annie ranking highlights just how much power and control Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has. The four main apps that Zuckerberg oversees boast more than a billion users each.
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Why did Facebook acquire Instagram and Whatsapp?
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