What does Facebook plan to do with WhatsApp?

1) Expand internationally Facebook wants to reach the next billion users, so it makes perfect sense to expand internationally into the countries it currently isn't very popular in. There's a lot of room for growth internationally, since Facebook is currently unpopular in Brazil, Eastern Europe, Russia, some parts of the Middle East, and completely banned in China. WhatsApp has a relatively solid user base in many of these countries, so it's actually a very smart and strategic move for Facebook to enter further into these countries, introducing Facebook as a platform for connecting people alongside WhatsApp, which they already use. 2) Integrate Facebook with mobile phone usage As we recently saw with the introduction of Facebook Home, Zuckerberg clearly has plans to integrate the entire Facebook experience with the mobile device experience, making them one and interdependent. This would also vastly increase its user base as well as its MAU, since many mobile device users would have to use Facebook in one way or another when the social network is integrated into their phones. WhatsApp is the leader in chat and messaging apart from the in-phone texting capabilities, so this acquisition just moves Facebook one step closer to its goal on an international scale. --- The question everyone is pondering is whether WhatsApp is really worth $16 billion cash + $3 billion in RSUs. The Zuck clearly has grand plans with this acquisition, so all we can do is wait and see!

Said by few minutes ago: WhatsApp will complement our existing chat and messaging services to provide new tools for our community. Facebook Messenger is widely used for chatting with your Facebook friends, and WhatsApp for communicating with all of your contacts and small groups of people. Since WhatsApp and Messenger serve such different and important uses, we will continue investing in both and making them each great products for everyone.

I'll piggy back off 's answer. Yes, Facebook wants to expand across into emerging markets that currently doesn't have a high adoption rate of Facebook usage. WhatsApp answers this because 1) it has a high adoption rate in emerging markets 2) mobile application 3) and can tie into Facebook's core product. However, I believe Facebook's acquisition for WhatsApp is a tad more sinister. Let me explain Have you heard of "http://Internet.org"? http://Internet.org is is a global partnership between technology leaders, nonprofits, local communities and experts who are working together to bring the internet to the two thirds of the world’s population that doesn't have it. Guess which corporation is heralding this? Yep, you guessed it. Facebook. Why is this important? Imagine a world where you've never heard of a voice + text plan. The only thing that exists are data plans, and your only telephone application on your smartphone is WhatsApp. Your browser is Opera, and all your other applications reside in Facebook. Sound far-fetched? Hardly. If Facebook succeeds to work with infrastructure, smartphone, and application partners to bring the rest of the 2/3 of the world’s population online, there is a very high chance that they can monopolize the internet industry for the third world. The challenges http://internet.org are addressing (optimizing hardware and software partner solutions)   Hardware: Adoption of affordable smartphones Nokia: You are probably wondering; Why Nokia? Remember the Nokia 3310? Legend says that the only way to destroy the most durable phone ever created on planet earth is to throw it into the fiery pits of Mount Doom. Facebook and the rest of the partners understand that the “use case” for users in developing countries are hypermobile, reside in harsh environments, and require functionality rather aesthetics. A delicate and fragile smartphone would not be ideal for that "persona". Therefore, Nokia being an expert in building functional and durable phones would be the perfect partner to design thehttp://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304834704579405081452450174?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304834704579405081452450174.htmlfor the developing world. Samsung: In two words, “Market Share”. Samsung has the http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2623415share (32%) in the smartphone industry. By far, Samsung has the largest expertise and ability to supply the upcoming demand for smartphones by the other 5 billion people on the planet. Qualcomm: Mobile leader in 3G and 4G wireless connectivity. Mediatek: Leader in mobile smartphone connectivity (Wi-fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC), chipsets, and wireless charging. 2. Telecommunication infrastructure to support smartphone usage Ericsson: Leading provider for Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Partnered with Facebook to build optimized applications, networks, devices, and services through their http://www.zdnet.com/facebook-ericsson-create-joint-innovation-lab-for-internet-org-7000026675/. Telco: http://www.zdnet.com/sg/singtel-unveils-prepaid-facebook-mobile-plan-7000024914/,http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/11/21/orange-telecom-announces-partnership-with-facebook-to-launch-social-calling-app/,http://technology.inquirer.net/30705/globe-telecom-to-offer-free-facebook-access-for-its-36-million-subscribers, amongst other telecommunication service providers already have existing infrastructure to support http://internet.org/’s initiatives. Unfortunately, partnerships like these can lead many to believe that service providers are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumb_pipe; however, that can be saved for another discussion. Software: Paradigm shift to view the “internet” (browser & apps) as a basic human need (Facebook, Opera Software). Facebook: WhatsApp (VoIP, SMS, IM), Jibbigo (Speech translation), Parse (mobile backend Interoperability) WhatsApp is the most adopted mobile messaging application in the world with the majority of adoption sprouting from http://gigaom.com/2014/02/20/why-whatsapp-is-facebooks-key-to-mobile-first-emerging-markets/ (India, Brazil). Furthermore, WhatsApp works exceptionally well with popular http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/nokia-220-and-asha-230-feature-phones-unveiled-at-mwc-2014-487485 Ringing any bells (http://Internet.org partner)?  If WhatsApp becomes the go to communications (voice, text, IM, etc...) application for the 5 billion people in the developing market; $19B purchase doesn’t seem quite that audacious. Does it surprise you that right after the Facebook acquisition, WhatsApp is moving forward to build out http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/24/us-mobile-world-whatsapp-idUSBREA1N0PT20140224 capabilities. This reinforces and solidifies their strategy of being the ultimate communications application. Jibbigo a speech-to-speech translation app for both iOs and Android that can be used offline without a data connection. Plenty of use cases spanning across this acquisition; however, I will not dive into it. Parse is an app that builds the backend framework for mobile devices that is interoperable and allows developers to focus on creating the frontend UI / UX. Parse will essentially be the gateway for third-party developers to quickly build out specific mobile applications in scale on Facebook’s platform for developing countries. Opera: (Horizon) Strong mobile browser capabilities, (Rocket Optimizer) backend data optimization for carriers, (Mini) advanced mobile browser analytics. Rocket Optimizer allows carriers to optimize data usage on feature phones or next-gen smartphones. A key driver in developing countries is that https://fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/851575_228794233937224_51579300_n.pdf can frequently yield results of 70–80% — or almost 5x savings. Horizon provides mobile browsing capabilities. What differentiates them from Chrome, IE, Safari, Mozilla is that they allow Operators and OEMs to deploy Horizon as a toolbar under their own brand names and preferred language, and make this experience accessible to each of their users as they use the native and other browsers on their smartphones. Facebook has what they call a (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Hairy_Audacious_Goal) Big Hairy Audacious Goal, that is, to "connect the world" and "bring 2/3 of the world online". WhatsApp is just one part of that puzzle.

Facebook is already outdated. It's obvious that the growth is in messenger apps. However it is super complicated to integrate services in a chat app without messing with the user experience and this must be the reason why Whatsapp has kept its service super simple. I don't think Facebook will do much in term of Whatsapp redesign. It would be a big risk to mess up with a 19 bn usd purchase. For sure they will use the data they bought. Based on your whatsapp conversation we can get way more information about your life than on your Facebook profile. So because your whatsapp account and your facebook account will be linked and I am sure Facebook will oblige you to link them (otherwise what's the point ?) They will grow the info they have on u meaning more targeted advertising. Now, they will add some functionality like posting from whatsapp to facebook or similar kind of stuff but this is just some fancy stuff. The real challenge is to provide advertising inside whatsapp. Unless Facebook is stupid they know that advertising on Facebook is useless. The real challenge is to put contextual ads inside the chat app without annoying the user. It's too bad Whatsapp sold because it has a huge potential. There is 75% chance Facebook will mess up the integration. The best approach would be to do almost nothing but 1) connect Whatsapp and Fcb ac and 2) analyse the data and use them.

I'm not sure yet but I would discard absolute integration with the Facebook messenger service as an option. At least that's what Zuckerberg said in his Facebook status.

Sometimes it feels like 1999 dotcom era, everyone is after eyeballs not revenue or profit per user. FB's strategy is simple: get the user first, monetize it later. A bit like Amazon's global domination strategy. This strategy is particularly fierce in the mobile ecosystem. Whatsapp dominates the mobile messaging market. Hence it makes sense to own that space. Whoever rules the mobile space is going to be a major winner over next 5 years. One way for FB to monetize Whatsapp is to make it into some form of payment system, like the M-Pesa system in Kenya and other developing countries.

No change. A more interesting question is what is the direction of Facebook Chat? Extinction seems likely...

As it appears to me, Facebook will continue to provide whatsapp as it is now, since there is a huge customer base at the moment. In due course of time the fb messanger starts using the whatsapp engine (as backend) as it happens to have better performance and may also reduce the burden on fb servers. Further enhancements from fb could be seen on this new messanger.( with a frontend of fb and backend of whatsapp