Page 205 - Social Media Guide (English Version)

and Jan Koum who had previously spent 20 years
combined at Yahoo before leaving the company. Shortly
thereafter, they both applied for jobs at Facebook but were
turned down.
In 2009 Koum began to explore to explore the possibility
of creating an app that would let mobile users better
interact and engage with their friends, family, and business
contacts. Koum teamed up with Brian Acton and they
managed to persuade five associates from Yahoo! to fund
the app with $250,000, and in 2009 WhatsApp was
launched.
It was a bit of a rocky start for WhatsApp. After numerous
crashes and failures, Koum began to grow frustrated with
the app's development and considered giving it up entirely.
Acton kept on encouraging Koum to stick it out “a few more
months” each time they hit a setback. They kept going on
and stuck it out till they saw the app through to its eventual
success. By February of 2013, WhatsApp boasted 50 staff
members and 200 million users

In February 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19
billion – which to date remains the largest acquisition and
one of the largest tech acquisitions in history.

What would have happened if they had given up after
trying and failing a few times?
The first lesson to be learnt from their story is NEVER
GIVE UP! KEEP ON TRYING!

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind and reaching forward to those things w h i c h
are ahead. Phil 3: 13

189 Social Media Guide for Ministry & Global Evangelism