WhatsApp voice service to challenge mobile carriers
WHATSAPP, the messaging app bought by Facebook last week, yesterday announced it will take on mobile operators with a new voice capability, while Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the firm could be worth far more than the $19bn (£11.4bn) he paid for it.
“I actually just think that by itself it’s worth much more than $19bn… we just want Jan [WhatsApp’s chief executive] to go out there and focus on connecting the next one, two or three billion people through WhatsApp,” said Zuckerberg at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona yesterday, adding: “There are very few services in the world that can do that and they’re very valuable.”
WhatsApp chief executive Jan Koum said the new voice feature, that will be added during the second quarter, could disrupt the phone call sector in the same way that WhatsApp has already disrupted carriers’ text message revenues since 2009.
“We are going to introduce voice in WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year,” said Koum, who added that WhatsApp will offer the best voice service – compared to Skype and other messaging rivals – due to its efficient use of mobile data.
“We are driven by the mission that people should be able to stay in touch anywhere and affordably. Our goal is to be on every mobile phone in the world,” added Koum. Koum also said that WhatsApp now has 465m monthly active users and 330m daily users, an increase of 15m from just last week when news of the Facebook sale was announced.