Social media giant Facebook recently acquired Whatsapp, one of the fastest growing messaging app companies for $19 billion. The move was seen by some industry insiders as a move to eliminate one of their competitors by buying them out, but Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees it differently. Whatsapp currently has 450 million users, a number that is growing by a million each month, and Zuckerberg is expecting the number of users to go over one billion, which will make it a very lucrative acquisition.

Whatsapp is not as popular as some other apps in the United States because almost everybody has unlimited text messaging on their phones these days. People who have friends and families in other countries are the primary users because they get to sent unlimited text messages to their loved ones without having to pay the high rates their phone carriers charge. Whatsapp is free to download, and costs only 99 cents a year after that for unlimited texts. That is why it is one of the fastest growing messaging app companies.

Whatsapp users who may be wary of Facebook invading their privacy don’t have to worry about that, because it will remain separate from Facebook, just like Instagram when it was acquired by Facebook. It will be run by the same people who currently run it, and there will be no changes, no new fees, and no ads.

Although there are people who are worried about Facebook acquiring another popular startup company, and strengthening their position in the social media market, the acquisition is seen as a win for all parties involved. Facebook gets to own the company that created the most popular messaging app in the market and increase their international brand, the founders of Whatsapp get paid an amount some insiders consider more than their company is worth, remain independent from Facebook, and retain their employees, and now have access to all the resources Facebook ha