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When Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion almost a decade ago, Mark Zuckerberg promised not to interfere too much with the messaging app. There was a subtle shift in 2019, when parent company Meta Platforms started tapping into WhatsApp's growth and business potential.
WhatsApp has now become more important to Meta, with more than half of Americans aged 18 to 35 who own a mobile phone having installed it. WhatsApp is now one of Meta's fastest-growing services in its most mature market.
WhatsApp is being used more and more by business users, who pay for the privilege. Ads on the Status section of WhatsApp may reach $10 billion in revenue this year. Meta uses WhatsApp to explore experimental and unproven products, and still has plans to develop it into a super app.
WhatsApp's momentum highlights that Meta is still fundamentally a business powered by its family of social apps, even though it invests heavily in the metaverse and artificial intelligence.
