Facts about WhatsApp

1. On the off chance you missed it, today Facebook announced the acquisition of WhatsApp in a $19 billion deal. The messaging app–which has enormous international usage–sold for $4 billion cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and $3 billion in restricted stock.

2. Twitter and Facebook had the chance to hire founder Brian Acton but didn’t!

3. They currently employ 50 people.

4. Each employee at WhatsApp created as much value as the entire Washington Post did in 137 years.

5. 32 engineers working on WhatsApp, i.e. one engineer is responsible for 14 million active users!!

6. In the last 9 months, WhatsApp added 1 million users a day.

7. WhatsApp is worth more than Southwest, Coach, Chipotle, News Corp, Under Armor, Dr. Pepper & Tiffany.

8. In one day, WhatsApp processes 4x as many messages as there are humans on the planet.

9. WhatsApp’s founders made about $5 billion EACH.

10. WhatsApp has 2.5x more active users than Twitter.

11. By market cap, WhatsApp is the 200th largest company in America.

12. NASA’s 2014 budget: $17b. WhatsApp: $19b.

13. WhatsApp founded in 2009 by former Yahoo! employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum

14. 70% of users are active on a daily basis.

15. 400 million active users in December

16. The app is the 5th most downloaded app on Android

17. WhatsApp doesn’t sell ads and zero have appeared on the app

18. Jan Koum keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!” To keep them focused on building a pure messaging experience.

19. WhatsApp spent ZERO cash on marketing, PR and user acquisition

20. WhatsApp’s messaging volume is approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume