WhatsApp was created by two people, Jan Koum and Brian Acton. Both of them were the ex-employees of Yahoo. They quit their jobs in order to plan something new. So, the duo went to South America for a vacation to take a little break from the work. There the duo started thinking to start off their own company. And they plan during the vacation but nothing was much planned anyway. So, let’s know how they pulled off WhatsApp from being clueless or in other words why is WhatsApp called WhatsApp?
Why Is It Called WhatsApp?
Returning back to the town, they started constantly applying for Facebook and Twitter but were rejected in every single attempt. Koum was totally reliant on his savings from Yahoo and had no job to earn his bread. The need for money had started up to be this essential that they started planning for WhatsApp. They didn’t have enough money to start such a big project as the WhatsApp idea was dependent on Koum’s savings too.
They planned to create WhatsApp in order, they will need one iOS developer. And then they started searching for iOS developers on Freelancer – Hire and find jobs. When they found one brilliant Russian iOS developer, Koum started to develop deep friendship and brotherhood with the developer as Koum was a Russian too.
Koum wanted to name it “Zap”. According to the duo, this name was not serving the purpose of WhatsApp so they later named it WhatsApp. WhatsApp is actually a pun from two words, What’s up. They considered that the name is catchy and fun. It was incorporated in 2009 and at that time there was undoubtedly a need for in-app messaging.
This application was missing one big feature that was push notifications but iOS 3.0 with its push notification update fulfilled this. WhatsApp used push notifications to let users know their status updates.
WhatsApp’s success in a nutshell
- June 2009 – Two ex-employees of Yahoo created WhatsApp in a world where people have to purchase an SMS pack to send messages to each other. It was free by then so that one can send anything he or she wishes to.
- October 2011 – Apple’s iMessage and BlackBerry’s BlackBerry messenger were giving tough competition to WhatsApp but WhatsApp was here to stay. It successfully defeats other messaging apps.
- December 2013 – WhatsApp processed around 18 million messages. Those days were gone when the network would be stuck because everyone would be sending Christmas wishes to families and friends.
- February 2014 – Facebook brought WhatsApp for $19 billion. The deal took place in Mountain View, California where Jan Koum used to collect food stamps 20 years ago.
- June 2014 – WhatsApp has broken its every record and was considered to be the ruling app. It has currently 800 million users all over the world.
- September 2014 – WhatsApp started advertising itself casting different actors in different parts of the world to gain more popularity and it did it successfully.
- January 2016 – WhatsApp was ruling the Play Store. It has established itself in the least period of time.
In some countries, the first year of WhatsApp is absolutely free as Koum promised. After one year of using WhatsApp, users have to pay less than one dollar in order to keep the app whole year.
Why did the founders create WhatsApp?
WhatsApp is one of the most successful apps but why did Brian Acton and Jan Koum create it and for what?
The reason is clear. Koum wanted people to stay connected to their loved ones at a lesser cost. SMS, back then, was way too expensive and full of loops. He wanted to see what his friends and family doing or an easy way to have a quick chat with them.
That is why it has been named – WhatsApp because keeping in touch with everyone you know is the actual purpose it serves. WhatsApp was created and remembered for one rule that was set by the duo that WhatsApp will never be for Games, gimmicks, and ads.
About WhatsApp’s Founder
We all know Microsoft from Bill Gates or vice versa and Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg. WhatsApp is no less than these two world-changing companies. Why Jan Koum is still one unknown name and face on the planet after successfully making one little app gain almost 800 million users?
Jan was basically from USSR. He spent his early childhood days in Russia and later, his family managed to shift to America after the fall of the Soviet Union. Jan has all his American success but he still believes not to advertise for anything that is rampant in the USA but absent in USSR.
It has been rumored that his creation of WhatsApp was for keeping contact with his family or mates who were back in Russia.
Conclusion
WhatsApp is a huge platform that provides you nothing but a place where you can freely talk and take information about your family and friends. It has undoubtedly created for public use and it has proved to be quite helpful if we do not spread fake or hate messages through it. Tell us how did you like reading why is WhatsApp called WhatsApp?