WhatsApp, Acton confirms, has been signing up a million new users per day since Dec. The big risk, as always, is a mass exodus of users to the next new thing. Insiders say the app could also start charging airlines or companies like Uber for the right to send messages to WhatsApp users with their permission. WhatsApp believes $1 billion in annual revenue is within reach by 2017 as the service grows and billing falls into place. and Britain, where mobile payments are relatively mature. It costs WhatsApp five cents to support each user, and it's charging customers in only a handful of countries, like the U.S.
WhatsApp could eventually make Zuck a lot of money. In later discussions Zuckerberg promised the WhatsApp founders "zero pressure" to make money, saying, "I would love for you guys to connect 4 to 5 billion people in the next five years." No ads, no stickers, no premium upgrades. WhatsApp charges nothing for the first year and then asks you to pay $1 a year thereafter. Its 470 million users have already erased $33 billion in SMS revenue from wireless carriers that got rich and fat charging per text. WhatsApp, which doesn't even have a sign on the door of its headquarters in Mountain View, is one of the world's most commonly used communication utilities after e-mail and the telephone and will introduce voice calling later this year. The numbers are crazy for a company with only 56 employees and roughly $20 million in revenue, but it made sense for Facebook. The deal, he says, has left him "astonished." Sequoia Capital, the only venture firm to taste a part of this deal, walks away with $3.5 billion-a 60-fold return on its $58 million investment. His cofounder, Brian Acton, a mild-mannered 42-year-old ex-Yahoo engineer who got turned down for jobs at Twitter and Facebook, will come away with $3 billion after tax.
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