Facebook is carrying on with its plan for world domination, one pixel at a time, by offering WhatsApp a $19 billion cash and stock package to join the Facebook fold.
Now comes the regulatory hurdle, as governments all over the globe have sat up and taken notice of Facebook's potentially competition-crushing crusade.
Into that fray jumps the European Union's European Commission, an organization that has organized a poll of potential Facebook/WhatsApp competitors using questionnaires. The EC has not indicated which companies were queried, nor what questions were asked. These companies allegedly had six days to respond.
The EC is concerned the merger will provide Facebook with a competition-stifling market position in instant messaging. The questionnaire is said to have focused on how Facebook rivals manage and use personal data.
WhatsApp offers Messenger, a cross-platform mobile messaging app that facilitates messaging without the users incurring SMS charges. By cross-platform, the company includes Apple, BlackBerry, Windows, Android and Nokia on the list of devices that can communicate with either their own kind or with each other. The app is free to download, free to use for one year, with a subscription required for subsequent years at 99 cents per year, proving that talk is indeed cheap. The company claims to have over 500,000 users sending over 1 billion messages per day.
Facebook offers users some options. Built in to the Facebook interface is its inline Chat function, which most Facebook users are familiar with. The company also offers a standalone, free Messenger mobile app, compatible with Apple, Android and Windows devices. Aside from text and graphics messaging, Messenger also enables audio calls (free through Wi-Fi only). A Messenger version for iPad has just hit the market. Through Messenger, a Facebook user can shoot videos and pictures while in the app and send with one button.
Facebook also offers the Slingshot app, which is lined up against Snapchat. Slingshot is for video and pictorial messaging, since all messages must be in the form of one or the other. The user can caption the videos or pictures. Messages can also be drawn and music can be added to messages.
Facebook's desire to stay ahead of its competitors in the fast-growing messaging app market may be a long battle since the market is dynamic and market share can shift rapidly, according to Martin Garner, an analyst at CCS Insight.
"Over the next few years we could expect for one or more players to have a big rise and become a strong player rather quickly," says Garner.
