Mobile Chat and Facebook

$19B is what Facebook spent on an app called 'WhatsApp'.  Wow.  How has this played out?

Facebook currently has 4 of the top 21 apps on both the Apple and Google app stores (4 of the top 11 on Apple's).

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102435643

Here is a snippet from that piece:

The $19 billion price tag for WhatsApp was — and remains — a head-scratcher for some. But putting price aside, the acquisition makes a ton of sense. Facebook seems to have put aside their plan to build their own smartphone and what do you do if you can't compete on hardware? You compete on software. Google recognized this when they acquired Android in 2005 and Facebook did the same after acquiring companies like Instagram and WhatsApp.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant