The story of Whatsapp is a live example of where innovation in technology takes people and their communication. With billions of users addicted to ‘Whatsapp’ style of keeping in touch, it is worthwhile to explore what went behind making this phenomenon happen.
Jan Koum believed in many things in his life. He believed in creating an application where people value personal information without asking for it. In order to achieve this, a product was developed by Jan that was called WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a smart application which does not require any personal information in order to use it. The user can easily use by downloading the application and keeping in touch with his phone contacts who also use Whatsapp. Jan did not want to add daily life tits and bits into the app. And this is how he became billionaire.
Jan Koum was not from a wealthy family. He stayed with his mother and grandmother in a small apartment. With his hard work, he finally got into San Jose State University where he took training in programming.Jan met his business partner, Brian while working at Yahoo as an engineer.
They worked together in Yahoo for almost nine years and then left the company together. Then they applied to Facebook, but saw no luck. They had no plans to become rich until they thought of making an app for iPhone users.They then created the app which received tremendous success in a very less time. This was because the users found it pretty easy to use and they need not to register anywhere in order to use the application. This was the dream come true for both the partners.
Jan and Brian earn millions of dollars without any advertising on the app. They made money in two ways. They started charging iPhone users on first time installation and the Android users every year. A lot of people used the app and paid both of them. Reports state that around 250 million people use WhatsApp in a month. This is a huge number for any application to reach in the smartphone space.
The more number of users for WhatsApp, the more partners earn. The money was straight going to their pocket. There was no outside investment in making the app.All the development of the app is done in Russia. They could have earned more from the app by creating the WhatsApp Corporation. They could have earned right away by selling it.
Both the partners worked at Yahoo and hence learnt the tricks of the trade. Yahoo works with advertisements. Most users do not like advertisements flashing while using an application. Understanding this, the two made an app which is simple to use devoid of barriers in the form of advertisements.
There are only 55 employees in the WhatsApp Inc. but they serve millions of people each day. The main aim of the app is to provide a simple interface to the users enabling them to stay in contact with their loved ones. WhatsApp is now bought over and owned by Facebook and this made both the partners, Jan and Brian billionaires in a very short period of time.
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