Displaying items by tag: Jan Koum

India has given WhatsApp, which is owned by social media giant Facebook, permission to start a payments service in the country, with the rollout initially limited to 20 million users.

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has spoken publicly for the first time since quitting Facebook — which acquired the encrypted messaging app for US$22 billion in 2014 — but apart from some intricate detail, has revealed nothing apart from what emerged when the news of his leaving the social media giant broke in June.

In its first move to make money off WhatsApp, Facebook has increased the functionality of the WhatsApp Business app that it has been testing for a few months, allowing companies to send messages to customers through the app.

Users of the end-to-end encrypted messaging service WhatsApp can expect to be deluged by ads soon, after the founders of the program, who sold it to Facebook, ended their association with the social media giant.

The chief executive of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, says he is leaving the company that he and co-founder Brian Acton sold to Facebook in 2014 for US$19 billion.

Facebook has confirmed one of the biggest app acquisitions in recent years, announcing it has acquired messaging application WhatsApp for US$16 billion.