If you ask me there’s one main reason why WhatsApp is so successful. Sure, they were one of the first messaging apps out there but thats not it. They are successful because they put the user first.

We wanted to spend our time building a service people wanted to use because it worked and saved them money and made their lives better in a small way. […] We knew we could do what most people aim to do every day: avoid ads. No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow. We know people go to sleep excited about who they chatted with that day (and disappointed about who they didn’t). We want WhatsApp to be the product that keeps you awake… and that you reach for in the morning. No one jumps up from a nap and runs to see an advertisement. Why we don’sell ads – WhatsApp Blog (2012)

• Extreemly easy setup
• available for almost all phones
• no ads, no popups, no hidden costs
• well designed and very easy to use

If you think about it, it really could have been something Apple made – which is why i think Facebook and WhatsApp is not a good match. In fact, facebook is quite the opposite to the WhatsApp values. While Facebook tries to increase the amount of advertising you see everywhere WhatsApp uses a slightly different approach:

Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. […] Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product. Why we don’sell ads – WhatsApp Blog (2012)

So even when WhatsApp promises that the service will remain as it is now

[…]You can continue to enjoy the service for a nominal fee. You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using. And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication.[…] Facebook – WhatsApp Blog (2014)

you still need to ask yourself how Facebook plans to return its investment of freakin $19 billions. I think there is only one way it will happen – you and i will become the product up for sale! On the bright side, this opens the doors for some other apps like Threema, which focuses on security.