The Power of Simplicity, A simple concept with billion users

Two friends founded WhatsApp in 2009 after getting rejected by Facebook in 2008. No advertisements! No gimmicks! No games! A basic premise that enabled a simple messaging service. Today, WhatsApp has over 2.24 billion active users worldwide, making it the most popular messaging app. Jan Koum was born in Ukraine in 1976 and Brian Acton in Michigan in 1972 A.D. Jan’s family immigrated to the United States when he was 16, facing financial hardship. Both attended San Jose State University, working as security testers at Yahoo during the dot-com boom. They became friends at Yahoo and later worked at Ernst and Young and Apple. In 2009, Koum bought an iPhone, inspiring him to create WhatsApp due to the high cost of international calls.

WhatsApp was launched for the first time in the United States on February 24, 2009. The app was initially only available for iPhone users, but it was later released for other mobile platforms. They chose this name ‘WhatsApp’ because it sounded very much like what’s up, check in with someone. After launching WhatsApp, they approached a wide range of people to promote and spread the app. They faced initial setbacks in raising funds, with numerous rejections from investors. They prioritized user privacy by not collecting personal data or running ads. They had a “no ads, no gimmicks” philosophy and so initially struggled to gain users, but they persisted. In 2009, Apple released the push notifications upgrade for the first time in history. This update was created to notify users when they’re not using an installed application. Jan took advantage of this shift and tweaked WhatsApp so that it sends push alerts to contacts. The app’s simplicity and cross-platform compatibility attracted a growing user base.