What if Facebook spent $ 19 billion on something and most people never noticed ? The social media giant dropped that mind-boggling amount Wednesday on WhatsApp , paying 19 times more than it did for Instagram ( or the gross national product of some small countries , if you prefer ) for a texting app that most folks in the United States had never even heard of . So what will this mean for the average Facebook user , or fans of WhatsApp , which lets users send unlimited messages for no more than 99 cents a year ? In the hours after the deal became public , the prevailing opinion appeared to be , `` Not much . '' `` WhatsApp will continue to operate independently within Facebook , '' CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote Wednesday . `` The product roadmap will remain unchanged and the team is going to stay in Mountain View , '' the suburban California city where it 's based . Zuckerberg also said that Messenger , Facebook 's chat app , and WhatsApp will remain separate . So what 's the deal ? Well , first , Facebook has demonstrated a willingness to scoop up successful mobile apps ( a space where it 's weak compared to rivals Google and Apple , with their own operating systems and stores ) then largely leave them alone . Witness Instagram , which Facebook bought in 2012 for $ 1 billion . Active users were wary of the buyout , with some threatening to leave . Since then , the photo app 's number of active users has more than doubled , even with the carefully crafted introduction of ads , which some people feared would junk up Instagram 's user experience . WhatsApp has 450 million active users worldwide and is reportedly adding millions more each month on a path Zuckerberg and others believe will soon have it hitting the 1 billion mark . And that 's probably where Facebook is really looking . While it may be lightly regarded in the U.S. , where unlimited texting plans are the norm , WhatsApp has taken off in emerging markets like India , where traditional text-messaging can get expensive . WhatsApp is free to download and costs a mere 99 cents per year after the first year . `` ( T ) here 's no other homegrown technology company that 's so widely loved overseas and so under appreciated at home , '' wrote Jim Goetz of Sequoia Capital , the primary investor in WhatsApp . With growth beginning to plateau in the United States , Facebook obviously is looking to places like India to keep growing . Zuckerberg also believes WhatsApp will help with the company 's internet.org initiative -- an effort to provide Web access to the two-thirds of the world 's population that does n't yet have it . `` Our mission is to make the world more open and connected , '' he wrote . `` We do this by building services that help people share any type of content with any group of people they want . WhatsApp will help us do this by continuing to develop a service that people around the world love to use every day . '' Bringing in WhatsApp also creates a whole new brain trust for Facebook as it develops future mobile products . For a while , Facebook struggled with how to make money in the emerging mobile landscape . Investors have increasingly warmed to its stock as the company has shown more and more comfort in the mobile space , where an ever increasing number of users access its products . So , if all signs point to Facebook remaining Facebook and WhatsApp remaining WhatsApp , there 's not much for users to be concerned about , right ? Well . Have you ever been on the Internet ? The move was met with predictable skepticism , much like the 2012 Instagram buyout and , really , almost any time a beloved tech startup gets gobbled up by one of the industry 's big-money behemoths . `` Facebook is like an evil parent that keeps finding the new hiding place for your diary , '' Twitter user Shannon Self wrote , referring to the site 's habit of buying out emerging communication tools . `` Facebook bought # Whatsapp ... Please be checking the security settings now ... too many scandals are about to break out . Damn ! '' added Hemanth Kumar , a journalist from India 's Hyderabad Times . Joked Rob Forbes , a DJ with South African radio station 5FM : `` Waking up to the news that Mark Zuckerburg now owns all your nudes . Again . ''
Facebook 's major purchase might not change much for users . The company shelled out $ 19 billion for texting tool WhatsApp . Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp will operate independently . Move looks to help Facebook abroad , where WhatsApp is strong .