What does Google get from buying Whatsapp?

On Friday, Digital Trends sang the ball that Google was negotiating to buy Whatsapp, one of the most popular free instant messaging apps for mobile devices. After this, a sequence of events reinforced Google's intention to invest in a new service of its kind called "Babel". By all accounts, Whasapp executives are playing hard, and so far the app's current value is $ 1 billion. But What does Google get from buying Whatsapp?

whatsapp alternatives
Whatsapp would integrate Google's range of services and add numbers to Big G! / Whatsapp

Last week, Facebook announced an Android smartphone in partnership with HTC, so Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the investment he has been making with social network users, as it is now possible to make and receive free calls using Facebook Messenger. Google, therefore, would not be left out of this market thread.

Yesterday, user Patric Dhawaan reported a message he received in his Gmail account saying that your recent conversations have been trashed because one or more Babel Chat, as you can see in the image below. Apparently, "Babel" – previously called "Babbel" – is currently being tested by the search giant's employees and will be supported by platforms such as Android, iOS, Chrome, Google+ and Gmail.

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Message confirming Google's future chat service, "Babel". / Patric Dhawaan

The service is expected to be available to other users following Google's developer event, Google I / O, scheduled for next month. The service integrates different Google features such as Voice, Talk and Google+ Messenger, and has the following functions:

  • Access conversation lists from any Google chat service
  • New user interface for conversation
  • Advanced Chat Groups
  • Possibility to upload images
  • Optimization of cross-device notifications

But what does Google want with Whatsapp is already developing and optimizing its own instant messaging service?

Users. Since the rumors about buying Whatsapp started, this is the question that doesn't want to shut up. For example, Facebook has a legion of 1 billion users with the ability to send and receive instant messages for free, of course not everyone has a smartphone, but they are tooled by the platform. Another example, Tencent's WeChat has over 400 million users – far higher than Twitter's – and LINE and KakaoTalk have 120 million and 80 million users respectively. That is, this is a booming market.

Google undoubtedly has a number of users equivalent (or larger) to Facebook when we add the number of users of the search giant's services. Because these users are not gathered in one service, but scattered among them, perhaps not everyone is interested in using Babel as they already do with Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp itself. To buy Whatsapp would be one of the most popular instant messengers of the moment, with 17 billion messages sent daily among its more than 100 million users on the Android system alone.

Therefore, Google is less concerned with acquiring a technology, but rather a product that adds business numbers. If Google's purchase of Whatsapp is confirmed by two things: either the service goes off in Big G's hands or makes room for other emerging companies in the mobile app market, as exclusivity is becoming a trend in the app market for smartphones and tablets.

In your opinion, would buying Whatsapp be a business from China to Google? Why? Let us know what you think about it in the comments below.

. (tagsToTranslate) google buy whatsapp (t) babel (t) instant messenger (t) messenger (t) Android