WhatsApp completes five years with Facebook: How the chat app thrived amid controversies

It was February 19, 2014, when Facebook took over WhatsApp operations from its co-founders for a sum of whopping $19 billion. Ever since the acquisition, WhatsApp’s popularity has catapulted to what the company prides itself in terms of the users it has worldwide. There have been several times when Facebook’s motives behind acquiring WhatsApp were questioned on the basis of the various scandals and debacles marring the repute of the company. But at the same time, WhatsApp shot to gain more popularity under Facebook’s umbrella to become what it is today, five years later.

WhatsApp was founded by previous Yahoo employees Brian Acton and Jan Kuom, who were stringent on the principle that WhatsApp will always weigh user privacy over data sharing, which is why it used to offer a paid version after one year of free services.