Ceo Jan Koum says..
We are going to introduce voice in WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year,” Koum said at the MWC in Spain. “I think we have the best voice product out there. We use the least amount of bandwidth.”
WhatsApp currently has a voice function but only in note form. This new service will be live.
On Wednesday, Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp for 19 billion US dollars (£11 billion) in a deal that is by far the biggest by the social networking company and any other done by Google Microsoft or Apple
Koum said: “last week we added a new Facebook friend. I don’t know if you guys heard.”
The blockbuster deal made serious waves with those in the telecommunications industry who gathered this week in the Catalan city, but also sparked concern among users that Facebook would introduce advertising to WhatsApp.
Koum insisted that there are no designs to add “marketing” to the messaging service.
“There are no planned changes,” said Koum. “Our vision and mission are aligned. We both want to make the world more connected.”
Facebook is paying 12 billion US dollars (£7 billion) in stock and 4 billion US dollars (£2.4 billion) in cash for WhatsApp. Koum along with fellow founder Brian Acton and their 55 employees were also granted restricted stock worth 3 billion US dollars (£1.8 billion) that will vest over four years after the deal closes.
Koum said that he didn’t expect that WhatsApp’s staff would grow in number very much, saying “we want to operate as a startup”.
Relatively unknown until now in the US, WhatsApp is popular in other countries, both in Europe and in emerging economies. The Mountain View,California, start-up already has almost twice as many users as the better known short messaging service, Twitter.
WhatsApp has 465 million monthly users and 330 daily users, according to Koum.
Source AP.