Whatsapp Battle: An article by DigitalTrend this morning suggests Google has offered $1 Billion to buy Whatsapp. This is the second of such news in recent times when TechCrunch published that Facebook is negotiating with Whatsapp to buy the popular cross-platform mobile instant messenger. This is just a rumor as none of the parties have made any official statement to this regards.
But what will Google acquiring Whatsapp benefit users of this app? Google has in the past admitted to have performed poorly when it comes to servicing. In this era of social media, instant messaging is a major service and Google has performed very badly in this area.
Report has it that Whatsapp is holding out for more than $1 Billion for this deal, if this deal goes through it will be the second of its nature after Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 Billion in 2012. Whatsapp may have become the internet battleground if Facebook and Google are actually bidding to acquire this app.
The two internet giants know very well that to reach a wider audience, then a vital mobile app like Whatsapp is very important. Whatsapp announced that over 18 billion messages are shared worldwide everyday using their app. The battle for social media domination is growing fiercer and both know that anyone who lays its hand on this app will easily reach out to a larger audience. There are 5 billion people in the world using mobile phones today.
Google maybe counting on the huge user-base of Whatsapp to want to acquire this app, Google can’t afford the time to rebuild and rebrand a competitive messaging app to compete with the likes of Whatsapp at the risk of entering the game too late; they simply know that acquiring this app will give them an edge on this social media war.
Whatsapp has replaced the native SMS and can boast of seriously damaging Blackberry’s dominance of the mobile instant messaging. Even blackberry users these days use Whatsapp, and so many people who followed the Blackberry way because of mobile instant messaging won’t have to remain loyal any more as they now have an effective alternative.
What do you think of Google trying to acquire Whatsapp? Which of Facebook or Google will you prefer to acquire this amazing app? Are you undecided like me? I will like to see Whatsapp remain by itself and serve its purpose as it has been than falling into the hands of these “evil geniuses” who will only acquire it to exploit its market value. Let me hear from you, use the comment form below to share your views. Remember to subscribe to my RSS feed.
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I will stop using it if they successfully buy it, why do they want to prey on all activities going on – on the internet? na wa o!
Actually WhatsApp is doing great and I love them, but if they must be acquired by a giant company, I would prefer Google to acquire it instead of Facebook. Reason is that Google may decide to make it free for life for all Android users.
Google has been acquiring services and products to make their dominance of the internet even stronger.
I am undecided about this, Facebook acquiring Whatsapp and integrating it into their site will make the social media even more fun but my problem with them is that they do not respect their members privacy. On the other hand Google will only increase their monopoly tendency of the internet, image what we go through with all their updates just because they are the major search engine…I will prefer if Whatsapp remains with its owners.
I’m not a fan of any & I don’t have any preference. My view though is that if Google acquire whatsapp, it could integrate it into its Android OS to give android devices a better service & I won’t be surprised if it tweak some content of the app to suit that purpose. Facebook on the other hand will try to use whatsapp’s popularity to take pple to facebook & I’ll expect a little integration of whatsapp’s services into Facebook. It would be an easier platform just like the newly introduced ‘Facebook Home’. Overall, I don’t want anything that will tamper with their services. I’ll prefer a buyer who won’t interfere with the app.
Hello Mavtrevor,
I am loving this post as much bro. If google buys Whatsapp, that will be the downfall of the app. Google don’t know how to take care of things, like take the example of feedburner, urkut and many others like that.
my point is; i’ll prefer facebook to aquire them. thanks
@Olumide then what will be the essence of selling it since the service wont be tampered with? And i doubt any other buyer except Yahoo can offer such amount of money.
My concern about Facebook acquiring Whatsapp is simple, Facebook does not have respect for user’s privacy. Last time they replaced our emails on their site to their @facebook.com emails. You can read it here http://netmediablog.com/facebook-replaces-every-members-emails-facebook-com-email. Now Facebook serves us ads with the information they gathered from us and our relationships with people. If they can go to that extent, then imagine what they will do when they have more private information of us with.
Whether the Google or Facebook can buy on it I am still gladly if these two can buy this “Whatspp”. I love Google and Facebook that is why I am so excited for this news.
Do you know how many services Google has acquired and retired in the last one year? What if they do same with Whatsapp?
Google acquiring whatsapp will be a big plus for their world dominance. Anyway, I am a big fan of whatsapp though!
imagine email, map(google), messenger(whtsapp), calendar with Andriod OS. Google is taking over everything. they have wonderful and amazing platforms
I think Facebook did it with instagram. Facebook can buy without interfering with the service.
My position on this is already known…..
That will be a big move on the part of Google and a feather in the cap of whatsapp.
Your blog looks great BTW.
Thanks for your compliment….