2009 founded Standing
messaging · whatsapp.com
the moat is real
17 years 177 days and counting
Jan Koum and Brian Acton, 2009. Still the way a lot of the world says they arrived.
Why it lasted
- It is the SMS of half the planet. Network effects at that scale do not care about your new app.
- Facebook bought it and was not allowed to fully melt it into Facebook. The brand stayed the brand.
- Status, calls, and business accounts extended it without making it a feed.
Times it almost ended
- The 2016 'from Facebook' ads revolt. Encryption and the green brand survived the parent.
- Telegram and Signal take the privacy slice. They do not take the family group chat in another country.
What would finish it
- A phone OS that replaces it with RCS + iMessage globally. Apple and Google have tried to agree on that for a decade.
Questions
Is WhatsApp still up?
Yes, with a Standing verdict: the moat is real. Founded 2009.
How long has WhatsApp been around?
WhatsApp has been up since 2009-02-24.
Why did WhatsApp survive?
It is the SMS of half the planet. Network effects at that scale do not care about your new app.
Could WhatsApp still die?
A phone OS that replaces it with RCS + iMessage globally. Apple and Google have tried to agree on that for a decade.