Facebook promised to add a handful of new standalone apps this year — but we're not sure this is what people had in mind.
The social media giant announced on Tuesday that is acquired the messaging app WhatsApp for $16 billion in stock and cash. The deal could be worth as much as $19 billion, including an additional $3 billion in vesting stock options, according to a Facebook blog post.
See also: Why Social Networks Are Crazy for Private Messaging
While the acquisition dwarfs Facebook's 2012 purchase of Instagram for $1 billion, the two deals do have one major similarity: Facebook intends to let WhatsApp operate independently.
"[WhatsApp] Leading mobile messaging company will continue to operate independently and retain its brand," Facebook outlined in its blog.
This aspect of the deal appears to be a major point of emphasis for WhatsApp. In its own blog post, the company made sure to highlight that joining Facebook will not impact its 450 million monthly active users.
WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently. You can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication. There would have been no partnership between our two companies if we had to compromise on the core principles that will always define our company, our vision and our product.
Facebook took a similar "hands off" approach to Instagram and has seen success from the photo sharing app. Instagram started to run its first set of advertisements last fall, and added a new private messaging feature of its own in December.
WhatsApp will compete somewhat with Facebook's own standalone messaging app Messenger, although the majority of WhatsApps users appear to be international. This should help Facebook add an even stronger international presence, even if WhatsApp operates independently.
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