Former Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp says he regrets the $22 billion sale to Facebook.

In a series of tweets he writes,

WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. 2 years in (2011), I joined the team as Chief Business Officer. And in 2012/13, we were approached by Zuck & Facebook about an acquisition. We declined and decided to keep growing instead.

But then…

FB approached us again early 2014 with an offer that made it look like a partnership:

• Full support for end-to-end encryption
• No ads (ever)
• Complete independence on product decisions
• Board seat for Jan Koum
• Our own office in Mountain View
• Etc.

As we began talking through the acquisition, and made our stance very clear:

- No mining user data
- No ads (ever)
- No cross-platform tracking

FB and their management agreed and we thought they believed in our mission.

Of course, that’s not what happened.

In 2014, WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion (in cash & stock).

But by 2017 and 2018, things started to look very different…

Until eventually, in 2018, right as details of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal came out, Brian Acton sent a tweet that sent shockwaves through the social media stratosphere.
Today, WhatsApp is Facebook’s second largest platform (even bigger than Instagram or FB Messenger).

But it’s a shadow of the product we poured our hearts into, and wanted to build for the world.

And I am not the only one who regrets that it became part of Facebook when it did.


@MeghUpdates