Who founded WhatsApp and in what year - briefly?
Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp in 2009.
Who founded WhatsApp and in what year - in detail?
WhatsApp, one of the world's most popular messaging platforms, was founded by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. The idea for WhatsApp came about in 2009 when Acton and Koum were looking for ways to communicate more efficiently while avoiding the intrusive nature of traditional SMS services.
Brian Acton, born on March 16, 1972, is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur. Prior to co-founding WhatsApp, Acton worked at Yahoo! for over a decade. Jan Koum, born on February 24, 1976, in Ukraine, is also an Internet entrepreneur who migrated to the United States with his mother when he was 16 years old.
In February 2009, Acton and Koum decided to create a new type of messaging service that would allow users to communicate more freely and without the constraints of traditional SMS. They named their app WhatsApp, a play on the phrase "what's up," which was a common greeting at the time. The app quickly gained traction due to its ease of use and the ability to send messages over an internet connection, bypassing the need for expensive text messaging plans.
WhatsApp Inc., the company behind the app, was officially founded in California on June 24, 2009. The founders' vision was to provide a simple, reliable, and convenient way for people to stay connected with their friends and family, regardless of where they were in the world.
The success of WhatsApp was unprecedented. By 2013, the app had over 200 million active users worldwide. In February 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for approximately $19 billion, marking one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the tech industry.
Brian Acton and Jan Koum's innovative approach to messaging has not only revolutionized how people communicate but also set a new standard for user-friendly applications. Their creation continues to be a dominant force in the global communication landscape, with over 2 billion users as of 2021.