Arth Patel

Brian Acton and Jan Koum, the founders of WhatsApp, both worked as employees of Yahoo! before leaving the company. Shortly thereafter, they both applied for jobs at Facebook—jobs that had they been accepted to would have likely left them unable to start WhatsApp—but were turned down. Koum began to explore the possibility of creating an app that would let mobile users better interact and engage with their friends, family, and business contacts. Teaming up with Brian Acton, Koum managed to persuade five associates from Yahoo! to fund the app with $250,000 and in 2009 WhatsApp was launched.

By February of 2013, WhatsApp boasted 50 staff members and 200 million users. Shortly thereafter, the app was bought out by Facebook for a staggering $19 billion—a number that stands as the largest acquisition in the world to date.

Today, WhatsApp still logs over 100 million voice calls a day according to the company’s blog. With usage numbers like these combined with the app’s historic buyout, there’s no arguing the success of WhatsApp.

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Happy Women's Day

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