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Facebook data dispute reportedly prompts WhatsApp founder's exit
WhatsApp's CEO Jan Koum posted on Facebook that he's leaving the company he helped found. But sources told The Washington Post that he's splitting after clashing with the messaging service's parent company, Facebook, over its desire to use WhatsApp's user data and weaken its encryption.
Facebook already hit with four lawsuits over Cambridge Analytica (updated)
It has been a week since the bombshell reports on Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook user data dropped and already the social media giant is facing at least four lawsuits. Along with a class action suit filed earlier this week on behalf of Facebook users whose data was obtained by Cambridge Analytica, three shareholders have also filed their own complaints.
WhatsApp co-founder leaves to start a nonprofit
Just about three years after his company's acquisition by Facebook, Brian Acton has announced he's departing WhatsApp. Eight years ago Acton, along with Jan Koum, launched the messaging app that now counts more than a billion daily users, quickly spreading across many mobile platforms to create a worldwide community of users even in areas where iOS and Android hadn't reached yet. Now, thanks to the "flexibility" from selling a company for $22 billion (Forbes estimates his wealth at $6.5 billion) Acton is launching a non-profit that is "focused at the intersection of nonprofit, technology and communications." There aren't a lot of details on his decision or exactly what will come next, but it comes at a time when Whatsapp is moving on from its original form. Beyond squabbles with governments over encryption and privacy, the platform has added filesharing, mobile payments, status updates and acting as a communication tool for businesses.
WhatsApp now deals in customer support for businesses
A year after outlining its plans to give the platform customer service functionality, WhatsApp has revealed how businesses will be able to communicate with users via verified accounts. A green check badge -- not dissimilar to the ones found on Facebook and Twitter -- next to a contact name means the phone number belongs to a business account. You'll also know when you start talking to a business through the app, as messages will appear in yellow. The feature is currently in beta for a small number of businesses participating in a pilot program.
Brazilian court reverses yet another WhatsApp ban
Access to WhatsApp has been reinstated in Brazil just 24 hours after Judge Marcel Montalvão ordered the country's five largest cellular service providers to block the messaging service.
WhatsApp is dropping the $1 annual fee
WhatsApp, the $19 billion dollar messaging service is dropping its $1 annual fee. Founder Jan Koum revealed the news on stage at this year's DLD conference, explaining that the buck-a-year charge might not sound like much, but still prevents many people from using the service -- in particular, those without access to card payments. If WhatsApp wants to become the messaging service of the masses (and it's well on its way), it needs to be entirely free, much like most of its competition.
WhatsApp to add voice communication by summer
When the announcement hit that Facebook was snapping up WhatsApp (beating out Google in the process), the gargantuan $19 billion price tag was hard to justify. But, with 465 million active users per month, there's a lot of potential for other, perhaps more profitable services. Today at MWC, TechCrunch has heard from WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum that a new service is indeed coming to the platform relatively soon: voice communication. Of WhatsApp's now 330 million daily user base, those on Android and iOS will get the feature first when it rolls out in second quarter 2014, followed by those on "some Nokia and BlackBerry phones." We're not clear on exactly how it'll work -- whether you'll send voice messages like Voxer, or make calls like Skype -- or if we'll be expected to pay for the privilege. (You can record and send audio clips within WhatsApp conversations already, but it's not exactly elegant.) Given there are a number of free voice-based services available to us already, however, we imagine it being part of the standard subscription. Assuming WhatsApp actually want us to use it, anyway.
WhatsApp to extend subscription to iOS
WhatsApp (US$0.99) is a mobile messaging app with a difference -- instead of putting up with ads in a free app, users pay for the app instead. On other mobile platforms, WhatsApp has gone to a subscription-based model, with an annual fee to use the service. The company is now going to put the iOS version of WhatsApp in line with those other platforms by adopting an annual subscription later this year. For most of the other platforms, which include Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Phone, new users just download the app for free and then have a full year to enjoy the app before being charged $1 for another year of service. WhatsApp hasn't set an exact date for the change, but company CEO Jan Koum was quoted as saying "...definitely this year. It's on the road map." WhatsApp is a tremendously popular messaging app, transmitting 17 billion messages daily. The future of the app is expected to remain in the mobile space instead of branching to the desktop. Koum said that "We feel strongly that the world is moving to mobile and [so] we want to be mobile-only."
