Facebook have been left with having to send out an apology to those using Whatsapp after it went down for almost three hours. Facebook have just acquired Whatsapp and the issue was apparently a fault with the server.
Whatsapp is one of the largest instant messaging apps and is used by more than 450 million people. When users tried to sign in they were left with nothing but the message “Connecting” and this went on and on. This led to the following message being sent out through Twitter. “Sorry we currently experiencing server issues. We hope to be back up and recovered shortly,” tweeted Whatsapp’s @wa-status at 8:16 p.m.
Users of the app had been complaining the whole time it was down, with some joking and saying that the Whatsapp team had all gone out on vacation as a way of celebrating the sale.
Facebook said that they had reached a deal with Whatsapp for $4 billion cash and $12 billion shares in Facebook. The deal also gives Whatsapp creators $3 billion in restricted stock units. The founders and employees at Whatsapp will be getting this in four years.
Mark Zuckerberg, the Chief Executive and founder of Facebook said “WhatsApp is on a path to connect one billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable.”
The founder of Whatsapp, Jan Koum said “WhatsApp’s extremely high user engagement and rapid growth are driven by the simple, powerful and instantaneous messaging capabilities we provide.” He also said that he was excited to be working alongside Mark and Facebook. Whatsapp will still work from Mountain View, California and Jan will be a part of the director’s board at Facebook.
Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger are going to continue as separate applications. And as for the news that WhatsApp will be a paid app soon, it has been classified as a rumor at the moment.
