Social media giant Facebook (renamed Meta) bought the WhatsApp platform for $22 billion in 2014. Within 4 years, the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, resigned from the company.
Another name who left his job was Neeraj Arora, who worked as Chief Operating Officer at WhatsApp from 2011 to 2018. In a tweet series shared years later, Arora stated that he played an important role in the process of selling the application to Facebook, he said he regretted it and he poured himself out.
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Former WhatsApp manager: Facebook management promised us
Neeraj Arora said that in 2012/2013, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook management contacted them to buy WhatsApp. However, he added that they initially rejected this and decided to expand the application instead of selling it.
Stating that they received a partnership offer by Facebook when the calendars showed 2014, Arora listed Mark Zuckerberg’s commitments as follows:
- Full support for end-to-end encryption
- No ads (no)
- Complete independence in product decisions
- Board seat for Jan Koum
- Our own office in Mountain View
- Etc.
“If you used WhatsApp in the early days, you remember what made the product special: International communication” Neeraj Arora continued his words and underlined that thanks to the application, communication is possible without SMS and call charges. Recalling that WhatsApp charged users 1 dollar at that time, he said:
WhatsApp made money by charging users $1 to download the app. And Facebook (as they told us) supported our mission and vision.
“We have clearly demonstrated our stance”
During the interviews; User data will remain private and secure., WhatsApp will be ad-free and no cross-platform tracking Stating that they took a clear stance on their issues, Arora said, “FB and its management were of the same opinion and we thought that they believed in our mission. But of course it didn’t happen,” he said.
Reminding the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal that emerged in 2018, Neeraj Arora said, “In 2014, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion (cash and stock). But by 2017 and 2018 things started to look very different…” He expressed his regret by using his words as follows:
Today, WhatsApp is Facebook’s second largest platform (even bigger than Instagram or FB Messenger). But it is a shadow of the product we pour our hearts into and want to build for the world. And I’m not the only one who regrets being a part of Facebook.
Initially, no one knew that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster wiping out user data and spitting out dirty money.
Who is the founder of WhatsApp? Here is his life story!
With 2 billion monthly users in 180 countries, whose application is WhatsApp now? How did the founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum come to these days?
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