WhatsApp is a free messaging and calling app founded in 2009 by former Yahoo staff Jan Koum and Brian Acton. Facebook, now Meta, bought it in 2014. It has more than 3 billion users in over 180 countries.
Industry: Messaging and calling app | Location: United States | Founded: 2009
About WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a free messaging and calling app owned by Meta Platforms. It supports text, photos, videos, documents and location sharing, voice calling, groups, Channels and Meta AI, and its messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. The company says it is used by more than 3 billion people in over 180 countries and offers 60 languages.
Jan Koum and Brian Acton founded WhatsApp after a combined 20 years at Yahoo. Koum incorporated the company in California in February 2009. Acton left in 2017 and Koum in 2018. In June 2026 Will Cathcart, who had led WhatsApp for nearly seven years, said he was stepping down to take another role at Meta, and Kunal Shah, founder of the Indian fintech company CRED, took over as head of WhatsApp.
For businesses, WhatsApp offers a separate WhatsApp Business app for small firms, launched in 2018, and the WhatsApp Business Platform, a programmatic interface for medium and large companies that was released as the Cloud API in 2022. Its business site presents case studies from Banco Inter, MadeiraMadeira and Vitaldent, and describes Meta Business Agent, an AI feature for customer conversations.
Facebook announced on 19 February 2014 that it would buy WhatsApp for about $16 billion: $4 billion in cash and about $12 billion in Facebook shares. A further $3 billion in restricted stock units was set aside for WhatsApp's founders and employees. At the time WhatsApp had more than 450 million monthly users. Facebook said WhatsApp would keep its brand and operate independently, and that Koum would join Facebook's board. Facebook's parent company is now Meta Platforms.
WhatsApp introduced Channels in 2023 and Meta's AI assistant in 2024. It reached 2 billion monthly users in 2020, and Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on the company's first-quarter 2025 earnings call that it had passed 3 billion.
The most recent change is in leadership. The BBC reported in June 2026 that Meta invested about $900 million in CRED at the time of Shah's appointment, and that he gave up his operating role there while remaining a shareholder.
Leadership
- Kunal Shah, Head of WhatsApp