The purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has been given the thumbs up sign from overseas regulators, who have been quoted in saying that there is plenty of competition available to provide customers with a wide variety of choices, once the merger is completed.

Founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, WhatsApp Inc.,  is a California based company, that currently employees more than 50 individuals.

Facebook, the leader in the social media network industry, announced their desire, earlier this year, to obtain the company $19 billion which will include $15 billion in stocks.  The green light was given, by the United States regulators for the deal to continue.  The regulators instructed WhatsApp Inc. to retain their current privacy practice, even after the merger is completed, as to avoid personal data to be a target for advertisers. European regulators, on the other hand, is requiring more information regarding this merger and its impact on consumer privacy.

WhatsApp Inc. went from totally free to a paid service to slow down growth, primarily due to the rising cost of sending verification texts to their many users.

During December of 2013, it was noted that active users of WhatsApp had reached 400 million per month. By mid-April 2014, this number jumped to 500 million monthly users.  It is estimated that 100 million videos and 700 million photos are shared on a daily basis, in addition to the 10 billion messages exchanged every day.

By September  2014, WhatsApp is a very popular messaging application that is currently being used by more than 600 million people.  China’s WeChat, with 438 active users, comes in a close second, followed by Japan’s LINE that currently supports 400 million users.

WhatsApp Messenger has plenty of benefits that will attract users, including the fact that it is platform that allows mobile and instant messaging to be exchanged between smartphone and other feature hand held devices.  In addition to text messages, users of WhatsApp will also be able to send videos, images and other audio types of media messages to each other.   Thanks to the ability that WhatsApp Messenger uses the same internet service that you currently use for web browsing and email connection, there is no hidden fees for this special service that will keep you instantly connected with friends and family.

Currently WhatsApp Messengers is available to use on Android, Blackberries, iPhones, Nokia and Window phones.  Late in the year 2009, WhatsApp for iPhones was updated to allow photos to be easily forwarded and by the year 2011, WhatsApp has made the list of being one of the top 20 apps in the United States App Stores.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) opened the stock market today at 77.76 and at 11:45 Eastern Daylight Time, it is 77.45.  The 52-week range of the stock is between 43.55 and 79.71.  It is 66% inst. owned with a market cap of 202.05 B.  Overall, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is up by 40 percent this year and ranks #8 on the latest IBD (Investor’s Business Daily) repot list of 50 top performing current stocks.

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