9781422277331

World-Changing Social Media Companies

Tech 2.0

by John Csiszar WhatsApp ®

World-Changing Social Media Companies

Tech 2.0

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World-Changing Social Media Companies

Tech 2.0

by John Csiszar WhatsApp ®

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2019 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-4060-1 Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4222-4066-3 EBook ISBN: 978-1-4222-7733-1

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Patty Kelley www.shorelinepublishing.com Cover photographs byWichan Sumalee/Dreamstime.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Csiszar, John, author. Title: WhatsApp / by John Csiszar. Description: Broomall, PA : Mason Crest, 2018. | Series: Tech 2.0 : world-changing social media companies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018001251| ISBN 9781422240663 (hardback) | ISBN 9781422240601 (series) | ISBN 9781422277331 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Internet telephony--Juvenile literature. | Instant messaging--Juvenile literature. | WhatsApp--Juve- nile literature. | Internet industry--Juvenile literature. | Koum, Jan, 1976---Juvenile literature. | Computer scien- tists--United States--Biography--Juvenile literature. Classification: LCC TK5105.8865 .C76 2018 | DDC 384.3/3--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2018001251 You may gain access to certain third party content (“Third-Party Sites”) by scanning and using the QR Codes that appear in this publication (the “QR Codes”). We do not oper- ate or control in any respect any information, products, or services on such Third-Party Sites linked to by us via the QR Codes included in this publication, and we assume no responsibility for any materials you may access using the QR Codes. Your use of the QR Codes may be subject to terms, limitations, or restrictions set forth in the applicable terms of use or otherwise established by the owners of the Third-Party Sites. Our linking to such Third-Party Sites via the QR Codes does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of such Third-Party Sites, or the information, products, or services offered on or through the Third-Party Sites, nor does it imply an endorsement or sponsorship of this publication by the owners of such Third-Party Sites. QR Codes disclaimer:

CONTENTS

Introduction . 6 Chapter 1: The Founding . 10 Chapter 2: Popularity Explosion . 22 Chapter 3: Game-Changing Tech . 30 Chapter 4: Now and the Future . 46 Find Out More. 62 Series Glossary of Key Terms. 63 Index. 64 Educational Videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic moments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR

Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

Tech 2.0

Introduction

6

W hatsApp is a messaging application that allows users to send text messages to one another for free across the globe, using a wifi connection rather than a cellular phone network. One of the interesting things about WhatsApp— whose name derives from the expression, “What’s up?”—is that many Americans have never heard of it. The global user base of WhatsApp is more than one billion, and yet the internet giant Face- book bought the company for a whopping $19 billion in 2014. How could that be? How could a property worth such a large amount of money to a very American company be an asset that most Ameri- cans are not familiar with? The answer lies in how WhatsApp delivers its services. At its core, WhatsApp is a simple messaging app. What differentiates it most—and yet makes it less critical to the everyday American—is that it sends messages over the internet. Is that groundbreaking technology? It might not seem so in the United States, where every phone network can connect with another one at no additional charge. Also, most mobile phone plans come with free unlimited text messaging as part of the package. However, internationally, as we’ll see, it’s quite a big deal indeed. So, where did this multi-billion-dollar company come from? Like any good Silicon Valley technology company story, WhatsApp had humble origins in the minds of two co-workers, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, at industrygiant Yahoo! The concept that the two founders arrived at was simple— they wanted an app that could help people communicate worldwide, without

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Tech 2.0

fear of being monitored, and they wanted it to be an extremely low-cost experience. They used their experiences working in the tech industry, coupled with Koum’s personal knowledge of the methods some governments use to eavesdrop on conversations, and created a modern-day, easy-to-use communications plat- form, accessible to anyone with an internet connection. The results have been amazing. In addition to the incredible dollar amount of the company’s sale, global usage is off the chart. More than one billion people worldwide now use WhatsApp, in more than 180 countries. In India alone, a survey of “hypercon- nected users”—people who spend more than six hours per day online—found that 54 percent of their time was on WhatsApp and Facebook alone. What seems like a simple technology is im- portant to users who want to remain connected, as it offers se- cure and reliable messaging on phones all over the world. WhatsApp owes part of its tremendous growth to the world- wide spread of mobile phones.World population is nearly eight bil- lion people, and there are more than seven billion mobile phones in existence. In contrast to the United States, which went through a prolonged period of changing from landline phones to mobile networks, many developing countries skipped the landline phase altogether. Rather than building out an increasingly old-fashioned technology of landline phone networks, these countries skipped ahead to a mobile phone–based network, leapfrogging the era of landline phones. This has helpedWhatsApp spread very widely in

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Introduction

some of these nations, as nearly everyonewhowants to communi- cate has a smartphone and can download the app. The future for WhatsApp looks even more promising. The successful management team at one of the largest and most suc- cessful companies in the world—Facebook—now hold the keys to that future. At the same time, WhatsApp remains independent in its vision to provide a seamless product to its large, loyal fan base. The company has been rapidly adding features to fight off the competition that has risen to take down the industry leader. New owner Facebook is already pointingWhatsApp in a direction that will connect businesses with users, using both WhatsApp’s vast user base and Facebook’s ability to connect interested parties. One of the most ironic features of the position WhatsApp finds itself in is that it was bought by Facebook. Both Koum and Acton, who were the main beneficiaries of Facebook’s $19 bil- lion purchase, had applied for positions at Facebook before they founded WhatsApp—and they were both rejected! Now, they are among the wealthiest “employees” working at Facebook. The story behind WhatsApp is just as exciting as the tech- nologies it has unleashed onto the world. From humble begin- nings to rapid growth, the company has hit a few bumps along the way, some of which have been (and continue to be) contro- versial. However, with Koum and Acton at the helm, WhatsApp has transformed the messaging landscape and has become a true giant of technology.

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1 The Founding

10

L ike many good inventions, the concept behind WhatsApp was forged out of necessity, rather than a desire to simply make money. WhatsApp was originally imagined by Jan Koum, who emigrated from communist Ukraine (left) at age 16. Unlike in the United States, which enjoys freedom of expression and speech, Koum’s homeland was a place of suspicion. Phones could be tapped and friends and neighbors questioned for calling out politicians or engaging in activities thought to be counter to the interests of the government. As a result, people were careful with their communications. Koum and his mother, who had left family behind in the Ukraine, had another problem back in those days—calling overseas was prohibitively

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

archaic out of date, old-fashioned dot-com bubble a period of time in the early 2000s when many high- value internet companies lost value in a short period of time emigrated left one country to live in another heyday a period of high success, usually in the past prohibitively so high as to be unreachable or impossible revenue money earned by a company for goods or services

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Tech 2.0

expensive. Even when willing to deal with the idea that their con- versations might be recorded, Koum and his mother still could not call relatives back home very often because it cost too much. Although he couldn’t have known it at the time, Koum’s own per- sonal realities were starting to create the basic framework for WhatsApp in his head. Koum still had a long way to go before he was in a position to buildWhatsApp. When he and his mother arrived in the United States, they required food stamps just to get by. Koum worked as a janitor, while his mother was a babysitter. Eventually, he was

Jan Koum moved to the US before founding WhatsApp.

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1: The Founding

able to work his way into college, although like many innovators, he ended up dropping out. Koum taught himself to code and pro- gram, learning both skills and the know-how that would eventu- ally be used developing WhatsApp. By 1997, Koum had found himself working a good job at Yahoo! It was there that he met Brian Acton, who would later be- come his WhatsApp co-founder. Both men rode the highs and lows of Yahoo!’s ups and downs during the heyday of the first in- ternet revolution. After first making a lot of money, as everything tech-related shot up to enormous value in the stock market, Ac- ton personally lost millions of dollars when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000. Lessons from the Road A long the way, both men learned many lessons from working at Yahoo!, which became another driver behind the ultimate success of WhatsApp. Yahoo! made most of its money from sell- ing apps on its popular search pages. Koum and Acton were re- cruited to help launch Yahoo!’s advertising platform Project Pan- ama in 2006. This experience solidified in the minds of the two soon-to-be founders their dislike of advertising. The two men felt that users should be given an experience, not be bombarded with ads that they had no interest in seeing. Thus was born another principle that ultimately became one of the founding corner- stones of WhatsApp.

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Tech 2.0

In September 2007, Koum and Acton left Yahoo! to travel around South America. When they returned from their trip, they both applied for jobs at Facebook, and both were turned down. They were beginning to live off their savings when another lucky event helped plant another idea that would contribute to the founding of WhatsApp. In January 2009, Koum bought an iPhone. While smartphone apps are a ubiquitous part of Ameri- can life today, at the time, the App Store was only seven months old. Looking around at all that the App Store offered—and the rate at which it was growing—Koum realized that apps had the poten- tial to become a booming market. After kicking around some ideas in his head, Koum even- tually talked to his old Russian friend, Alex Fishman, who in turn

WhatsApp’s First Rules D uring the entire pre-stage and development process, Koum had three basic rules that worked into every early version of the app: 1. The service would not carry advertising. 2. The service would not store messages to prevent violation an individual’s privacy (a nod to his upbringing in communist Ukraine). 3. The service would focus on delivering a re- liable user experience.

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