CEO WhatsApp January Koum was signed a purchase agreement worth 19 billion dollars with Facebook, at the front of the former social services offices that are part of the memories of his past.
There are unique from above WhatsApp Facebook acquisition was announced on Wednesday ( 19/02/2014 ) yesterday . CEO WhatsApp January Koum Whatsapp invite fellow founder , Brian Acton , and venture capitalist Jim Goetz to former North County Social Service Office , Mountain View , United States .
In front of the building is now unused here , Jan. Koum , immigrants who moved to the U.S. from the Soviet Union communist country with knee capital , first in line to get food stamps , food stamps are distributed U.S. government for the less able .
There are also standing up , Koum and his friends signed a purchase agreement worth 19 billion U.S. dollars, or around Rp 223 trillion, with social networking giant Facebook .
WhatsApp has changed the lives Koum , from someone who had lived alone become a billionaire . Koum property value , which according to Forbes has a 45 percent stake WhatsApp , has now reached around 6.8 billion U.S. dollars .
WhatsApp itself has grown into a giant instant message with the number of monthly active users reached 450 million . Every day , according to Wired , the service server sends more than 18 billion messages , nearly matching the daily volume of 19.5 billion SMS
messages .
What is the secret of success WhatsApp ? Since the first Koum and Acton always consistently keeping service company that has only 50 employees in order to keep it simple and focus on messaging and ad-free .
Therefore , rather than seen as a major source of income , instead they consider intrusive advertising company and comfort towards the user . Koum and Acton was quite satisfied with WhatsApp income from user subscription fees , which last year only to touch 20 million U.S. dollars . That figure is fairly " small " for the service of WhatsApp .
WhatsApp simplicity reflected from a piece of paper in the office space Koum , contains a brief slogan written by Acton : " Without Ads ! Without the Games ! Without Gimmick " . Beside it lay a pair of walkie - talkies used Koum to figure out how to simplify the voice -based instant messaging .