Brian Acton

Timelines

18 Jan 2021

Signal users report encryption errors; Company claims chat security unaffected

Signal, the privacy-centric messaging service, spent long hours battling a global outage last weekend. The disruption is reported to have been caused by a high influx of new users.

08 Jan 2021

Signal's user count surges after Musk recommends it over WhatsApp

Signal, the privacy-centric messaging service, took to Twitter to thank new users for their support. It also took the opportunity to apologize for delays in delivery of verification codes preventing registration for many new users.

11 Feb 2020

Elon Musk says Facebook is 'lame' and should be deleted

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has never been a fan of Facebook or its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

17 Jan 2020

Facebook taking U-turn, drops plan to show WhatsApp ads: Report

For more than a year, we have been hearing about Facebook's highly ambitious plan to monetize WhatsApp by showing ads.

14 Jun 2019

WhatsApp co-founder builds $80mn property in America's richest town

If you become a billionaire overnight, how would you spend that truckload of money?

29 May 2019

MacKenzie Bezos to donate half her $35bn fortune to charity

MacKenzie Bezos (48), the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos (55), has become the newest billionaire to sign The Giving Pledge - a philanthropy group of the world's wealthiest people.

24 May 2019

This is how WhatsApp will make money, starting 2020

WhatsApp, the largest messaging service in the world, will serve advertisements as part of an effort to generate revenues.

31 Dec 2018

#ThatWas2018: Facebook and its catastrophic run, scandals, and data leaks

12 months ago, Facebook made a promise of fixing issues that marred its reputation and affected its community throughout 2017.

27 Nov 2018

Another high-profile exit of WhatsApp: Chief Business Officer Neeraj quits

In what is sure to hurt WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook, Neeraj Arora, the Chief Business Officer of the messaging app, announced on Monday that he will leave the company.

01 Nov 2018

You'll soon start seeing ads on WhatsApp: Details here

In what might come as a disappointment to many WhatsApp users, as well as WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton, the messaging platform is getting ready to serve advertisements to users around the world.

04 Oct 2018

This is how WhatsApp will start monetizing

WhatsApp, the biggest messaging service in the world, is planning to roll out targeted Ads in its status feature as part of its monetization efforts.

29 Sep 2018

WhatsApp is working on bringing ads to its iOS app

According to reliable leaker WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is already working to implement ads on its iOS app.

27 Sep 2018

WhatsApp co-founder left $850mn for his morals: Here's why

Since WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton quit Facebook a year ago and then went on to bite the hand that fed him, tweeting, "It is time. #deletefacebook", many questions had remained unanswered.

25 Sep 2018

Instagram co-founders resign, marking another high-profile exit from Facebook

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of photo and video sharing network Instagram, have decided to quit.

13 May 2018

Internet.org VP Chris Daniels to replace WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum

Facebook has announced that Chris Daniels, who is the VP of the company's Internet.org initiative, will replace WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum.

04 May 2018

Neeraj Arora could be the new CEO of WhatsApp

After WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum confirmed that he is quitting the company, reports have surfaced that the popular chat app's next potential CEO could be Neeraj Arora, who's the head of "All Things Business" at the company.

01 May 2018

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum quits over privacy clashes with Facebook

WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum has confirmed that he is leaving the company.

27 Apr 2018

Bad news: #DeleteFacebook still won't get you off Facebook's radar

The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal highlighted how data of 87 million users was exploited due to Facebook's lax policies regarding data collection by third-party apps.

25 Mar 2018

#DeleteFacebook: Mozilla, Sonos join the bandwagon

Mozilla has announced to temporarily distance itself from Facebook.

24 Mar 2018

#DeleteFacebook: Elon Musk deletes Facebook pages of Tesla, SpaceX

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has deleted both the companies' Facebook accounts after he responded to WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton's tweet urging people to support the #deletefacebook movement.

21 Mar 2018

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton wants everyone to delete Facebook

In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion, which increased the net worth of one of the co-founders of the chat app, Brian Acton, to $6.5 billion.

22 Feb 2018

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton invests $50mn in messaging app Signal

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton has invested $50 million in encrypted instant messaging app Signal.

11 Nov 2017

How can WhatsApp generate revenue for Facebook?

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has one of the world's largest user-bases with over 1.3 billion users.

13 Sep 2017

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton to leave company

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton took to Facebook to announce he is leaving the company.

11 Aug 2017

WhatsApp UPI payments feature may finally be ready

WhatsApp is finally gearing up for its next big step. With Paytm planning on bringing its messaging service soon, it has now decided to integrate UPI-based mobile payments system into its platform.

24 Jul 2017

Is Facebook's WhatsApp taking a step towards monetization?

Facebook-owned instant messaging app WhatsApp doesn't make any money as of now.

18 Jul 2017

Soon, iOS users can watch YouTube videos directly on WhatsApp!

iOS users will soon be able to play YouTube videos directly on WhatsApp, according to WABetaInfo, which claims the feature is under development.

14 Jul 2017

Latest WhatsApp update: Share almost any kind of file

The latest update of WhatsApp makes sharing of files easier. Large documents can now be shared; the update limits the file size sharing up to 100MB.

23 Jun 2017

WhatsApp to bring payments on its platform?

WhatsApp users might soon be able to transfer money via UPI on the platform. The Facebook-owned messaging app is already in talks with SBI, NPCI and other financial institutions to "devise ways to integrate their systems" for the same.