Key questions this article answers:
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There is a new trend of startups delivering products and services via WhatsApp instead of a mobile app. Why is WhatsApp an attractive platform?
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As more startups embrace WhatsApp as a primary user touchpoint, what challenges will they face?
Before WhatsApp, few platforms offered real-time communication globally. Between 2005 and 2008, Blackberry's BBM was popular in Africa, and 2go was quite the rave in Nigeria. Still, none achieved widespread ubiquity, an essential feature for social networks.
So in 2009, when WhatsApp came onto the scene, there was still a large appetite for an instant messaging platform. In four years, WhatsApp reached 200 million active users globally; for context, it took Facebook five years to hit this number (founded in 2004, it reached the milestone in 2009). It is no wonder Mark Zuckerberg shelled out $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp in 2014.
This move proved far-sighted
