Is WhatsApp Sold To Mark Zuckerberg? Who Is The Director Of WhatsApp Now?

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, has been heavily criticized for the recent changes made to its privacy policies. The change came with an ultimatum for users to accept the new policies or lose their accounts. Although the company was forced to delay the changes till May following the backlash, it is yet to completely scrap the idea. The move didn't go well for the company as a lot of users migrated to other messaging apps such as Signal and Telegram that claim to offer better privacy.

Well, only time will the fate of the messaging app, but with WhatsApp becoming a hot topic, many of you would be interested in knowing more about the background of the app. Let's dive into the details:

How WhatsApp Works?

WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging and VoIP service that enables users to send texts, voice messages, video calling, share multimedia files, and user locations. The app can be accessed from both mobile phones and desktops that have internet connections.

To get a WhatsApp account, all a user needs to do is provide their cellular mobile number for registration. WhatsApp also has a service for small businesses called WhatsApp Business, which was launched in 2018. This service allows small businesses to communicate with customers and promote their products.

Does Facebook Own WhatsApp?

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in 2014 for a whopping $19.3 billion. At the time, this purchase became the largest acquisition of a venture-backed company in history. By August 2014, WhatsApp became a globally-used app, with over 600-million users. The numbers escalated to 700-million by January 2015 and the daily message exchange reached 2 billion.

Who's The Director Of WhatsApp Now?

Jan Koum is the co-founder and ex-CEO of WhatsApp. Koum is a Ukrainian entrepreneur who also has American citizenship. After Facebook acquired WhatsApp, he was named in Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans at no 62. In 2016, Koum sold more than $2.4 billion worth of Facebook stock, about half of his holdings in the company.

In April 2018, Koum decided to step down from Facebook's board of directors following disputes with Facebook over the company policies. However, later it was revealed that was still formally attached to the company.