Weather / WhatsApp is a company created in 2009 by Jan KUOM, a Ukrainian born in a village settled on the outskirts of Kiev, and Brian Acton, an American who he worked Adobe, Apple and Yahoo before venturing as cofounder of the mobile messaging platform that was bought on February 19, 2014 by the extraordinary sum of 19,000 million dollars, one of the bulkier transactions in the history of technology.
The life of Jam KUOM: marked by war and insecurity
The life of the two men has not been without avatars. Koum grew up in a home of poor performance, without electricity or hot water. It is the only child of a housewife and an administrator of structure, as described in the profile prepared by Parmy Olson in Forbes magazine. The billionaire now grew in the middle of the Cold War, in 1976. In the historical context of his childhood, the political climate in Ukraine was marked by restrictions, by poverty and by the anxiety. The State ran over individuality and violated the privacy of citizens. The wiretaps were part of the daily dynamics, to the point that in the home of Koum rarely used the phone for fear that the conversations were monitored and recorded. Koum and his family were Jewish. They lived in fear of imminent disgrace of an invisible enemy: the secret police. When Jan was 16, he emigrated to America with his mother and grandmother. The anti-Semitic climate had worsened in Ukraine and fled. The welcomed the lush lands of Mountain View, California, the same city where now the offices of WhatsApp and Google monumental campus was erected. They landed on the east coast of the United States stalked with few pennies in their pockets. “They rented an apartment with two bedrooms thanks to government assistance. His mother filled pack of pencils and a stack of 20 notebooks with Soviet motives to evade the payment of school supplies in their new country of residence “, tells Forbes. His father was running a construction company in Ukraine government.
Jam Koum (first from right to left) at the DefCon Hacker Convention in Las Vegas (Nevada) in 1999 / Reuters
Koum is a tall, powerfully built man. It measures 1.87 cm tall. When her mother got cancer, they lived state subsidy. Jan collected food stamps and kept a rude and unkempt appearance. He rarely shaved and was considered as a schoolyard bully. At 18, he became interested in computers and at 19 he bought his first PC. What characterizes his spirit self. “He joined a group of hackers called WooWoo on the platform Internet Relay Chat Network,” says Forbes.
Internet Relay Chat is best known as IRC. It is a communication protocol in real time technical sophistication which appeals to those skilled in the necessities of computing and frightens the uninitiated. Although still exists, its popularity has diminished, especially the rise of social networks and instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp himself. It is said that at that time, one Koum initiated discussions with Napster founder Shawn Fanning. Ukrainian just graduated from high school in Mission Viejo, California and then enrolled as a student of Mathematics and Computer Science at the San Jose State University. As he himself admits in his professional profile on LinkedIn, he abandoned his studies, which marks a curious similarity to other Silicon Valley legends like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. During his university adventures, she was hired by Ernst & amp; Young as ‘tester’ safety. One of its missions was to inspect the Yahoo advertising system, client company of professional services firm. There he met Brian Acton, a barely four years older than him, a prolific career as an engineer man. Professional experience in Acton joined Rockwell International in Apple and Adobe before joining global media company founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang.
Koum know Brian Acton
1998 Koum was hired by Yahoo as an engineer and Security Operations. While still attending classes sponsored him and David Filo workload led him to leave the cloisters. At that time, Dennis Yu, in an interview with TIME, worked at Yahoo and has some details of the personality of the Ukrainian. “He was the man who rammed rivals when we played football, took advantage of his height.” It is also a leader of few but strong words. Ukrainian adventure Yahoo lasted more than eight years. In that period, Jan Koum and Brian Acton shook friendships. Jan Koum came to occupy Operations Management Infrastructure and Acton climbed even higher. For 2007, it was Vice President of Engineering. The same year that Steve Jobs descrestó with the iPhone, the two men left Yahoo and devoted to travel and to enjoy a sabbatical. According to Forbes, Koum had $ 400,000 in savings. By then, they had already amassed considerable fortunes, although they were not as wealthy as to be considered billionaires.
The iPhone changes the scene and found WhatsApp
They say that in 2009, the Ukrainian purchased iPhone and realized the enormous potential of smart mobile devices and applications market. Exactly when he turned 33, the February 24, 2009, he risked and founded WhatsApp. The name is inspired, as expected, in the expression ‘What’s up’. According to Mashable, “The idea of applying to Koum came when his gym banned the use of cell phones. As a result, many lost calls during their routines and decided to create a solution. ” That same year, Brian Acton was rejected both Facebook and Twitter. Now, ironically, the company Zuckerberg has joined the board. At that time, the dominant force in the segment of mobile instant messaging to BlackBerry and was popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). Also on stage they poked Microsoft Messenger, Google Talk and Skype. The big problem of BBM was only allowed contact with other BlackBerry devices. Instead, platform WhatsApp outset and proved simple to use: making contacts phone book contacts. For this reason, it has been criticized because it is considered unsafe factor. The company holds a background of simplicity and humility. Journalists who visited their facilities in Mountain View Jam reported that Brian Acton Koum and often roam the halls with casual attire, sometimes in shorts and sandals. U n to the philosophy of WhatsApp is not include advertising because its founders believe that in some forms, is a way to interfere with the privacy of users (also seems to be a reflection of his contempt for the work they did in Yahoo ). Just they have 55 employees and are renowned for their low profile. “No ads, no games, no gimmicks,” can be read in a note on the wall of his office.
The exponential growth of WhatsApp
The exponential growth of WhatsApp. Monthly / Statista active users.
WhatsApp grew so monumental and destroyed the competition. Its annual growth of 73 percent and has achieved much more than any other social network in its early years. If after 60 months, Facebook had 145 million users, WhatsApp reached 445 million. In October 2011, the volume of daily messages billion reached in February 2012, reached 2,000 million in August 2013 and amounted to 31,000 million. In recent months his climb was amazing and January 2014 reached 50,000 million.
In April 2014, WhatsApp processed a record number of 64,000 million messages a day. It is estimated that at present, the average figure stands at more than 30,000 million messages, more than 700 million images, 200 million more voice messages and more than 100 million video messages. When the company was acquired by Facebook it had 465 million users. Two years later, the brand has achieved 1,000 million. In 24 months, it grew an average of 22.3 million monthly users, 784,000 newspapers, 32,626 per hour. WhatsApp exceeded the expectations of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s president, who predicted in a financial report of October 2014, the platform would reach one billion users over a period of five years. On that occasion, the executive said that the products are not as interesting as they returned to become business “to which will have a billion people using them.” That day came. WhatsApp equipment from acquisition by Facebook, concentrated its efforts on winning users. WhatsApp growth resembles that of Facebook. The social network created by Mark Zuckerberg had 485 million monthly active users in the second quarter 2010. Just over two years later, in the third quarter of 2012, broke the barrier of 1,000 million.
The future: the business world
One of the reasons why WhatsApp eliminated the fee for using the service lay in his desire to reconcile its process of overcrowding in markets with Brazil and India, where, Koum words, it is quite difficult to pay “not necessarily have credit cards or infrastructure which process electronic transactions,” he said. In the next stage, it is expected to WhatsApp implement mechanisms to facilitate communication between companies and their customers, so that this messaging system becomes a carrier of choice for the development of corporate and commercial activities. This would be accompanied by a strategy to monetize the application. Currently, Koum is 39 and his fortune is valued at 9,300 million dollars. Ranked 108 on the Forbes list of the richest in the world.
EDGAR MEDINA TechnosphereEdgarMed on Twitter
What’s next for Whatsapp to reach 1,000 million users
Information The Tiempo
http://entornointeligente.com/articulo/7825943/Que-sigue-para-Whatsapp-al-llegar-a-1000-millones-de-usuarios-03022016
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