- Facebook’s recent acquisition of customer-service startup Kustomer ($1B) aligns with its goal of making WhatsApp into a commercial marketplace.
- Since acquiring WhatsApp in 2014 ($19B), the messaging app has grown to 2 billion users yet generates little revenue from charging businesses to message customers.
- Facebook plans on making WhatsApp a hub for business-to-consumer communication and by facilitating transactions.
- WhatsApp is extremely popular internationally, with India and Brazil leading in users.
- Expanding WhatsApp is a hedge against a potential future decline in social media.
