As Facebook continues its pursuit of WhatsApp in the EU after its agreement to buy the messaging company for $19 billion, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is already looking to the future, one where he sees WhatsApp as being far more successful than it is now.
WhatsApp surpassed 600 million users at the end of last month, but Zuckerberg thinks this number could climb far, far higher once Facebook get the app, which it says will remain separate, under its control.
“I think we’re going to have an opportunity for WhatsApp to connect two or three billion people”
“I think we’re going to have an opportunity for WhatsApp to connect two or three billion people because by working with us they’re just now going to have so many more resources and opportunities,” Zuckerberg said at an appearance in Mexico City according to WSJ.
Facebook now has 1.3 billion users, and Zuckerberg says the social network wants to connect everyone on Earth and could commit “billions of dollars over the next decade” to make that happen. Part of this effort starts in Mexico, a country with a 50 percent (about 60 million people) internet penetration rate. Facebook is trying to grow this number by working with local providers and governments to open the internet up to even more people.
Do you think WhatsApp will reach three billion people? Let us know in the comments!