$19 Billion With Almost No Revenue

Jan Koum's childhood home in Ukraine had a phone line the KGB monitored. That single fact shaped every product decision he'd ever make.

When he built WhatsApp, he refused ads entirely. He'd watched advertising corrupt product priorities firsthand and wouldn't repeat it. The app charged $1 a year and grew to 450 million users on pure utility alone. Facebook bought it in 2014 for $19 billion — the most expensive acquisition of a nearly-revenue-free company in history. The surveillance he escaped as a kid became the founding principle of the most private messaging tool ever built.

Видео $19 Billion With Almost No Revenue канала Trends VC