Advertisement

Article

Rumor: Google and WhatsApp negotiating $1 billion acquisition

Lewis Leong

Lewis Leong

  • Updated:

Whatsapp logoDigital Trends is reporting that Google and WhatsApp are in negotiations for the acquisition of the mobile chat service. According to an insider source who spoke with Digital Trends, the deal is reaching “close to” $1 billion.

Previously there were rumors that Google would be consolidating all of its chat services into one service called “Babble” but it’s not clear where the acquisition of WhatsApp will fit into this. Google is no doubt feeling the pressure from the rise of mobile messaging with competitors like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, KakaoTalk, and LINE. The company already has several chat services like Google Talk, Messenger, Voice, and Hangouts, but each of the services don’t work well with one another.

While Google Talk is already available to millions of Gmail users, the chat service hasn’t taken off. This is because Google Talk is extremely basic and not it’s available on all platforms. WhatsApp, on the other hand, is available on every major mobile platform with millions of downloads. Chat has also evolved past just sending simple text messages. Services like WhatsApp allow users to attach photos, video, audio, location, and “stickers.” None of Google’s chat services on mobile can compete with these features.

whatsapp google messenger

Google will have to act quickly if it wants to have a competitive, unified chat service. Just this past week, Facebook announced the Facebook Home homescreen replacement app for Android, which aims to suck Facebook users into its ecosystem. Facebook Home has a very slick interface for chat messages called Chat Heads, which offers persistent chat notifications that can be acted upon within any app.

The negotiation between WhatsApp and Google is still only a rumor at this point but it’s interesting think about how Google can stay competitive in the mobile chat market.

Source: Digital Trends

Lewis Leong

Lewis Leong

Latest from Lewis Leong

Editorial Guidelines