By 2016, it had become the primary means of Internet communication in regions including Latin America, the Indian subcontinent, and large parts of Europe and Africa. It became the world's most popular messaging application by 2015, and had more than 2 billion users worldwide by February 2020. of Mountain View, California, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately US$19.3 billion. In January 2018, WhatsApp released a standalone business app called WhatsApp Business which can communicate with the standard WhatsApp client. The service requires a cellular mobile telephone number to sign up.
WhatsApp's client application runs on mobile devices, and can be accessed from computers. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other content. WhatsApp (also called WhatsApp Messenger) is a freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by United States tech conglomerate Meta Platforms.
