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Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, has called himself a "salesman" for allowing Facebook to buy his company, adding that selling the privacy of WhatsApp users "to a greater advantage" is a decision he must take on a daily basis.
The free entry comes in an interview with Forbes, who describes in detail how Acton's company was acquired by Facebook and the ensuing battle over how Facebook has pushed to monetize its valuable asset.
Acton and WhatsApp's co-founder, Jan Koum, met in the early 1990s at Yahoo, before launching WhatsApp together in 2009. The company has made a lot of money by charging a small annual subscription to Facebook in 2014 for 22 billion dollars. the annual fee has been removed, leaving many people wondering how Facebook had planned to make money with WhatsApp.
No ads
Even though Acton and Koum were opposed to advertising, Facebook's main business model is based on ads. It would therefore be little surprise that the new owner of WhatsApp has begun to look for ways to monetize the application through advertising. The clashes erupted last year when Acton came out of Facebook, leaving behind some $ 850 million of unvested shares. Earlier this year, Koum revealed that he also planned to leave the company, even though he was still intermittent to make sure he would receive the rest of his payment on Facebook.
Both Acton and Koum remained largely silent about the exact nature of their feelings about Facebook, although they were quite obvious about their emotions. Earlier this year, Acton invested $ 50 million in the encrypted messaging application Signal while helping to set up the Signal Foundation, where he will serve as executive chairman. A month later, following the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, Acton tweeted that it was time to remove Facebook.
It's time. #deletefacebook
– Brian Acton (@brianacton) March 20, 2018
Join the points
A few years ago, Facebook revealed plans to allow WhatsApp to share user data, such as phone numbers, with Facebook. In August, WhatsApp announced the launch of its Business API, which allows large businesses to manage and send non-promotional messages to their customers via WhatsApp at a flat rate. Next year, WhatsApp plans to start showing ads in the Status section of the app, which will of course be powered by Facebook's advertising expertise.
Acton and Koum never wanted WhatsApp to become an ad serving platform, but it's unclear how they envisioned Facebook – a company that derives most of its money from advertising
"In the end, I sold my business," Acton told Forbes. "I have sold the privacy of my users to a greater advantage. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with it every day.
Acton added, "I'm sold out. I recognize that.
These latest revelations come a few days after Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger revealed that they also left Facebook, while rumors of clashes with Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, circulating.
It seems that Facebook is trying to reduce the continued autonomy of its acquisitions of $ 2 billion, as evidenced by these four significant departures in the last 12 months.
Clearly, Acton regrets, a feeling that Koum can share, but it's too late for that.
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