Perhaps the Facebook purchase of Whatsapp makes sense under this scenario:
- Facebook intends to own every online platform the world uses to communicate with its friends
- Whatsapp is used in many countries around the world because, unlike in the US, texting is very expensive
- Whatsapp has provided no financial information indicating that it is a profitable company
- Whatsapps current users pay 99-cents for a year of unlimited texting and sending recorded messages, the app is free to download
- yet, Facebook pays $19 billion for Whatsapp
- Whatsapp has only 55 employees making the purchase price "insanely high."
- Facebook agrees that Whatsapp will remain an independent entity and brand
- Facebook is a publicly owned company and by law is required to maximize profits
- Facebook, in order to maximize profits and not monetize the independent Whatsapp entity, reinvents Whatsapp, weakens it, or shuts it down and directs users to use Facebook's existing or redesigned platform
- Making Whatsapp an irrelevant entity!
Threat to monopoly averted!
