Facebook: WhatsApp Will Continue to Operate Independently

Have you heard about, facebook has overtaken whatsapp. What you think out of it. Hello, there, facebook is using whatsapp. I will be taking it in details. Also i will explain all about this recent acquisition. Have you check about last article about Facebook Has No Plans to Bring Ads to WhatsApp.If not you must check it. 

Facebook promised to add a handful of new standalone apps this year — but we're not sure this is what people had in mind.

The social media giant announced on Tuesday that is acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $16 billion in stock and cash. The deal could be worth as much as $19 billion, including an additional $3 billion in vesting stock options, according to a Facebook blog post.

While the acquisition dwarfs Facebook's 2012 purchase of Instagram for $1 billion, the two deals do have one major similarity: Facebook intends to let WhatsApp operate independently.

"[WhatsApp] Leading mobile messaging company will continue to operate independently and retain its brand," Facebook outlined in its blog.

This aspect of the deal appears to be a major point of emphasis for WhatsApp. In its own blog post, the company made sure to highlight that joining Facebook will not impact its 450 million monthly active users.

WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product.

Facebook took a similar "hands off" approach to Instagram and has seen success from the photo sharing app. Instagram started to run its first set of advertisements last fall, and added a new private messaging feature of its own in December.

WhatsApp will compete somewhat with Facebook's own standalone messaging app Messenger, although the majority of WhatsApps users appear to be international. This should help Facebook add an even stronger international presence, even if WhatsApp operates independently.

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Facebook Flip-Flops on Messenger

Have you heard about, facebook has overtaken whatsapp. What you think out of it. Hello, there, facebook is using whatsapp. I will be taking it in details. Also i will explain all about this recent acquisition. Have you check about last article about 10 Other Things Facebook Could Have Bought.If not you must check it. 

Facebook Flip-Flops on Messenger After WhatsApp Acquisition

It was just four months ago that Facebook updated its standalone messaging app, Messenger, with the goal of making the user experience more like texting.

That task appears to be easier said than done. Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of messaging app WhatsApp on Wednesday effectively confirmed that Messenger didn't live up to the task, at least not outside the U.S.

With the acquisition, Facebook has started preaching a very different strategy for Messenger than was outlined just four months ago.

With the Messenger update in October, Facebook opened messaging to all its users' mobile contacts, not just those on Messenger. Users needed only to add their phone numbers within the app. Messenger was redesigned to look like a standard text message inbox, and messages were delivered more quickly than before, according to Facebook product managers.

The app even had icons to alert users if they were sending a message to someone on mobile instead of their Facebook inbox. The update, in short, was intended to produce a real rival to SMS — not to mention WhatsApp.

"All of our changes around the new Messenger are about making it a mobile-to-mobile experience, so that I know I can dependably reach you instantly," Peter Martinazzi, Messenger product manager at Facebook, told Mashable last October. "If you're on Messenger, its going to go to your phone and you're going to treat it just like you would SMS, as a high priority mobile to mobile message."

                             

Facebook acquired messaging app WhatsApp (L), a move that changed the role of its existing messaging app, Messenger.

IMAGE: APP STORE

Fast forward to Wednesday, when Mark Zuckerberg discussed WhatsApp with investors and mentioned Messenger frequently. Gone was the comparison to SMS. Messenger was suddenly an app for casual conversations between Facebook friends.

Messenger "evolved from Facebook chat, which was more instant messaging, not SMS," said Zuckerberg. "It's widely used today for chatting with your Facebook friends, and a lot of the messages people send are not real-time. Someone will send someone a message like a more informal email and then expect a reply later in the day."

So what happened? Facebook simply bought a better way to capture the global messaging audience, which WhatsApp reaches. In the 10 days leading up to Wednesday's acquisition, WhatsApp was the top social networking app on iOS every day but one in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy, according to App Annie.

"Facebook tends to be floppy," says Gartner analyst Brian Blau. "They try one thing, it doesn't work out, then they immediately try something else. It's how Facebook tries to innovate."

It would be hard to see Messenger disappearing anytime soon, Blau added. It seems likely that Facebook was simply hedging its bets — building an app to compete with WhatsApp while simultaneously pursuing it.

Regardless of the reason, it appears that Messenger has been relegated back to its original use case — casual conversations between Facebook friends. Because if you can't beat 'em, buy 'em.

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