After being acquired by Facebook earlier this year and the aftermath of security fears that ensued, it seemed to many a shock when WhatsApp announced that it had surpassed 500 million active users, but what’s become even more surprising is WhatsApp‘s goal of increasing that user base twice over, from the current 500 million to one billion in a year.
“Nothing has changed for us [after acquisition by Facebook]”
“Nothing has changed for us [after acquisition by Facebook],” Neeraj Arora, business development head of WhatsApp told a visiting group of young Indian entrepreneurs as part of a NASSCOM initiative to promote startups in India, where he also announced the ambitious growth goal.
“And that too without even touching at the money, which has been parked in a bank for future use and not for the mobile messaging service,” he said, adding that the company hardly ever does press. “We have spent zero dollars so far in marketing.” He Arora called that focus a “distraction” that took away from the app’s real goal of “bringing in more users” to their platform. To that end, the $19 billion received from the Facebook purchase could be used for “insurance purposes” as well as investing.
WhatsApp is available for all major mobile platforms.