That's according to Techcrunch, which has heard from 'sources close to the matter' that Zuckerberg's company is in talks with Whatsapp about a potential acquisition.
There are not yet any details on how much Facebook is looking to spend, and the firm has yet to respond to our request for comment. Such a move would make sense for Facebook as it looks to expand its mobile services. Whatsapp, founded in 2009, announced in October 2011 that its 100 million daily active users were sending and receiving 1 billion messages per day - users that Facebook will want to turn onto its social network.
These users are spread across multiple mobile platforms, including Android, Blackberry, IOS, Symbian and Windows Phone. "Just how much is 1 billion messages? That is 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444 messages a minute, and 11,574 messages a second," Whatsapp boasted in a blog post.
Whatsapp is a paid application, which means Facebook could make money every time the application is downloaded, rather than through advertising. It's unclear what exactly Facebook would do with Whatsapp if it bought it, but it's likely that the app would gain tighter integration with the social network.
