Google Rumored To Be Eyeing WhatsApp

Tuesday, 09 April 2013 17:52

Posted by Yusra Husain

KARACHI: Internet giant Google is rumored to be in talks for buying the leading mobile messaging application WhatsApp for a reported price of $1 billion.

Perhaps top websites like Twitter and Facebook are realizing that due to the real-time feature of multimedia messaging applications like WhatsApp, the latter are more valuable to customers in terms of convenience.

Last year, we heard rumors that Facebook too wanted to buy the application. In fact, Facebook bought photo sharing application Instagram for $ 1 billion in 2012. Judging from its Android homepage revelation last week, mobiles have become the center of concern at least for Facebook, if not for other social networking websites.

Allegedly, WhatsApp has greatly impacted the decrease of SMS, earns $100 million a year and carries up to 18 billion messages daily. That too at a stupendously low price: $1 a year for all other mobile platforms and free for iOS users after a one-time buying fee.

So $1 billion seems like a rip-off for what is probably the world’s top messaging application that works across nearly all current mobile platforms, including iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian and Windows Phone.

Reportedly, both Neeraj Arora, Business Development Head at WhatsApp, and Google spokeswoman Samantha Smith, refused to comment on the speculation.