WhatsApp takes aim at the phone call: App set to add voice messaging within months..

By: Unknown on 13:33

WhatsApp is set to add the ability to send and receive voice messages through its app for the first time..
The firm, bought last week by Facebook, will launch the service within weeks in a bid to take on phone firms.

CEO Jan Koum said the voice service will be deployed for Android and iPhones this spring, with Blackberry and Microsoft and Nokia phones coming later.

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WhatsApp Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Jan Koum at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The app will add voice calls to its product in the second quarter of this year.

WHATSAPP IN NUMBERS

Over 450 million people using the service each month
Firm has 50 employees
70% of those people active on a given day;
Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume
Service adds more than 1 million new registered users per day
600m photos uploaded each day
200m voice messages sent each day

'We are going to introduce voice in WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year,' Koum said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
'I think we have the best voice product out there.
'We use the least amount of bandwidth.'
WhatsApp currently has a voice function but only in note form. This new service will be live.
On Wednesday, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion in a deal that is by far the biggest by the social networking company and any other done by Google, Microsoft or Apple.
Wearing a gray shirt, jeans and a black jacket, the 38-year-old Koum quipped - 'last week we added a new Facebook friend.
'I don't know if you guys heard.'
However, the firm was hit by technical problems days later as 'server issues' caused a crash on Saturday.
The popular application's chat conversations - used by more than 450 million people across the world each month - showed a loading asterisk and alert, 'Connecting...' while the problems persisted.
The blockbuster deal made serious waves with those in the telecommunications industry who gathered this week in the Catalan city, but also sparked concern among users that Facebook would introduce advertising to WhatsApp.

 

Koum insisted that there are no designs to add 'marketing' to the messaging service.
'There are no planned changes,' said Koum.
'Our vision and mission are aligned. We both want to make the world more connected.'
Facebook is paying $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp. Koum along with fellow founder Brian Acton and their 55 employees were also granted restricted stock worth $3 billion that will vest over four years after the deal closes.

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Boom: The free instant messaging service created in 2009 has grown faster than Facebook in its five years, and now has more than 450million monthly users around the world

Koum said that he didn't expect that WhatsApp's staff would grow in number very much, saying that 'we want to operate as a startup.'
Relatively unknown until now in the U.S., WhatsApp is popular in other countries, both in Europe and in emerging economies.
The Mountain View, California, startup already has almost twice as many users as the better known short messaging service, Twitter.
WhatsApp has 465 million monthly users and 330 daily users, according to Koum, and costs users $1 a year after a first free year.
The world's biggest social networking company said last week that it is paying $12 billion in Facebook stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp.
In addition, the app's founders and employees will be granted $3 billion in restricted stock that will vest over four years after the deal closes.
Facebook says it is keeping WhatsApp as a separate service, just as it did with Instagram, which it bought for about $715.3 million.
'The acquisition supports Facebook and WhatsApp's shared mission to bring more connectivity and utility to the world by delivering core internet services efficiently and affordably,' the social network said.
WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly active users. In comparison, Twitter had 241 million users at the end of 2014.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is on path to reach a billion users.
'The combination of WhatsApp and Facebook will allow us to connect many more people round the world,' Zuckerberg said.

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Boost: WhatsApp is still growing and is predicted to have a billion users soon

'We want to develop more mobile experiences like Instagram and Messenger.
'WhatApp fits this vision perfectly, it has incredibly strong engagement and growth.'
'It's the only app we've ever seen that has grown more quickly than Facebook itself.'
'Their product roadmap is very exciting and won't change.

 

'Overall, I'm very excited about this deal.
'WhatsApp had every option in the world, so I'm thrilled they chose us.'
As part of the deal, WhatsApp co-founder and Chief Executive Jan Koum will join Facebook's board, and the social network will grant an additional $3 billion worth of restricted stock units to WhatsApp's founders, including Koum.

THE WHATSAPP FOUNDERS WHO WERE REJECTED FOR JOBS AT FACEBOOK

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The sale of WhatsApp to Facebook for $19 billion has made its founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton billionaires overnight. 
But they are not your typical Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Success came to them late. The pair were well over 30 when they launched their messaging app in 2009.
The duo stand out in Silicon Valley for their unusual approach. They both hate advertising and have paid for almost no marketing to make the five-year-old app a success.
This may be because 37-year-old Koum and 42-year-old Acton had unusual backgrounds. Koum was born and raised in a small village outside of Kiev, Ukraine.
Growing up, his home had no electricity or hot water. His parents, a housewife and a construction manager, avoided talking on the phone in case it was tapped by the state.

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Koum and his mother immigrated to Mountain View when he was 16. By 18, Koum had taught himself computer networking by buying manuals from a used book store and returning them when he’d finished.
In 1997, Koum took a job at Yahoo sitting across a desk from Acton. They hit it off, because they enjoyed each others straight-down-the-line style. 

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Michigan-born Acton studied engineering at the University of Central Florida and graduated in 1988. In May, 1992 he got a job at Rockwell International as systems administrator.
Acton became Yahoo employee 44 in 1996, worked as software engineer, then senior software engineer, principal software engineer and director of engineering.
The pair stayed with Yahoo for over a decade building their bond through games of ultimate frisbee.  In September 2007 Koum and Acton finally left Yahoo.
They both applied to Facebook and were rejected. Instead they decided to set up their own venture, Whatsapp, now sold to Facebook for billions.
According to reports, the success of Whatsapp hasn’t changed Koum or Acton. When a journalist visited the company's headquarters in July 2012, the Koum was barefoot and Acton was sporting flip-flops.

'This is an incredible moment for me,' Mr Koum said.
'Every day over 19bn messages are sent, with over 1m new users every day.
'We wanted it to be simple, and a better service than SMS.'
'We're excited and honoured to partner with Mark and Facebook as we continue to bring our product to more people around the world,'
'WhatsApp's extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide.'
The deal instantly makes WhatsApp cofounders Jan Koum and Brian Acton billionaires.
Forbes estimates that Koum held about a 45% stake in the company, while Acton’s stake was over 20%.

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Proud moment: Jan Koum, pictured at a digital conference in January, described the deal as 'incredible'

Facebook promised to keep the WhatsApp brand and service, and pledged a $1 billion cash break-up fee were the deal to fall through.
WhatsApp will remain based in Mountain View, Calif., and Facebook said its own messenger app and WhatsApp's core messaging product will continue to operate as separate applications
Shares in Facebook slid 5 percent to $64.70 after hours, from a close of $68.06 on the Nasdaq.
Facebook was advised by Allen & Co, while WhatApp has enlisted Morgan Stanley for the deal.
The deal is the latest aquisition for Facebook, which last year bought Instagram.
It also reportedly offered to pay close to $3 billion or more to acquire messaging service Snapchat, though that offer was spurned by the site's founders.

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WhatsApp in numbers

Zuckerberg said WhatsApp would operate in the same way as Instagram, as a separate firm.
'It would be pretty stupid of us to interfere,' he said.
He also said he was not planning to put ads on the service.
'Our strategy is to grow and connect people.
'Once we get to 2-3 billion people there are ways we can monetise.
'Now we want to focus on growing users. I don't think ads are the right way here.'
Koum also pledged not to add ads to WhatsApp, which makes money from a subscription model.
'We think advertising is not the way to go - we create a direct relationship with customers,' said Koum.
'We want to make the product better, faster and more efficient.'
Experts say the deal could help Facebook attract teens.
Professor Will Stewart from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) said: 'Obviously WhatsApp adds instant messaging to Facebook which must strengthen their position for the moment.
'Equally, all app types rise and fade, so established social media formats like Facebook will be overtaken by something new, and picking up candidates that might have ultimately replaced them may be a good survival strategy for a while.
'This does show the growing significance of mobile, though of course Facebook is on mobile anyway.
'But, Facebook has been around a while now so the real question is what comes next?'