Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that a partnership with the social network will allow WhatsApp messaging service to reach a user base of as much as two billion to three billion.
However, even if WhatsApp achieves the feat, it will continue to be an independent service from Facebook.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in February for $19 billion in a combination of cash and stocks, in a deal that was pegged to change the entire messaging technology industry.
The acquisition has already passed United States regulatory laws. However, it is still under review in Europe, with Facebook itself requesting for a review from the European Commission to bypass separate investigations from each country in the European Union.
"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," said Zuckerberg during an appearance in Mexico City.
Zuckerberg said that Facebook, which currently has 1.3 billion active users per month, hopes to connect all the people all over the world.
"Even if it means that Facebook has to spend billions of dollars over the next decade making this happen, I believe that over the long term its gonna be a good thing for us and for the world," Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg added that the penetration rate of the Internet in Mexico is at about 50 percent, which is over the global average. However, that still translates to 60 million people in Mexico not currently connected.
"What we really care about is connecting everyone in the world," Zuckerberg said at the event, which was hosted by Carlos Slim's Telmex Foundation.
Slim's phone company is the biggest mobile service and Internet provider in Mexico and is one of the companies that Facebook is working with to bring its vision of an Internet-connected world into reality.
Zucckerberg also states this belief that if all the people globally are connected to the Internet, all businesses and national economies will become better.
Facebook launched its Internet.org initiative last year, which aims to provide Internet access to currently disconnected places such as in Asia and Africa by working with telecommunications service providers.
According to statistics from the International Telecommunications Union, around 3 billion people will be connected to the Internet by the end of this year, with about half of the Internet users in world using Facebook as a social network.
