Unprofitable WhatsApp may hit Facebook’s profitable apps: Mark Zuckerberg

BENGALURU: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that WhatsApp, the popular but unprofitable messaging application owned by his company, may be cannibalising the time Indians spend on its other social media apps, posing a challenge to the American giant in its largest market.

In a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Zuckerberg also reiterated his stand against data localisation in countries with a weak rule of law, though he didn’t specifically name any.

“You should expect that we won’t store sensitive data in countries where it might be improperly accessed because of weak rule of law or governments that can forcibly get access to your data,” he said. “Our stance on data localisation is a risk. That is, if we get blocked in a major country, that will hurt our community and our business.”