There are many instances when people like you or me miss some important calls due to gym, morning walk or any other useful things. It was one such instance that gave is WhasApp.
WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum said that the idea for the company he co-founded with Brian Acton in 2009 came about so he could stop missing calls on his new smartphone.
“It started with me buying an iPhone,” Koum told an audience of several hundred Silicon Valley veterans gathered for an event this week at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. “I got annoyed that I was missing calls when I went to the gym.”
He and Acton then built an app that could let their friends know whether or not they were available, thanks to an easy-to-use feature called “Status.”
“We didn’t set out to build a company. We just wanted to build a product that people used,” Koum said late Wednesday, during an onstage panel discussion that preceded an advance screening of a new documentary called “Silicon Valley: The Untold Story.”
The app didn’t take off right away, even though it was accepted into Apple’s App Store, Koum recounted.
“We were so excited when it launched,” he said. “And so disappointed when no one used it.”
That soon changed, however.
By 2014, WhatsApp, thanks to its easy-to-use interface and uncluttered design, had more than 400 million users globally.