According to a BBC News article, “Facebook has bought messaging app WhatsApp in a deal worth a total of $19bn in cash and shares.”

According to the official WhatsApp website, “WhatsApp Messenger is a cross-platform mobile messaging app which allows you to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS. WhatsApp Messenger is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.” This makes it easy to message people all over the world without having to pay overpriced international fees.

Williston senior Lucy Boland said, “A girl from Barcelona [I was there on exchange] asked me if I had WhatsApp. I had no idea what it was and she was extremely surprised that I didn’t know. She told me that you can talk to people in different countries for free. I didn’t believe her at all, I thought that was impossible.” Boland also said, “Later, when I went home, I heard about it from my family, and now I have it for when I need to speak to my family when they are abroad.”

It is possible to iMessage people in other countries using Wi-Fi, but with WhatsApp, people can text from several different phone carriers instead of only iPhone to iPhone. Post-graduate Jack Najarian uses WhatsApp and says, “I talk to my friend who is in Israel doing a gap year. [WhatsApp is] better because I can avoid the long distance rates and it’s pretty similar to normal texting,” Najarian says.

Forbes.com says Facebook use is on a decline. In an article published recently by the tech website MakeUseOf named “Why Facebook is in Decline,” Gene Marks and Chriss Hoffman write, “Not only is Facebook not as cool anymore but there are too many other great choices for social media platforms. Among them: Tumblr, Instagram, SnapChat, WhatsApp, and of course Twitter.”

Facebook Newsroom commented in an article about the big buy. “WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO.

Facebook is trying to stay popular while not being drowned by other social media apps. An article written by the Associated Press about how WhatsApp will affect Facebook says, “The acquisition makes sense for 10-year-old Facebook as it looks to attract its next billion users while keeping its existing 1.23 billion members including teenagers, interested.”

Not only has Facebook bought WhatsApp, but they have also decided to add voice calls. In an article on CNN.com by Doug Gross, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said, “We want to make sure people always have the ability to stay in touch with their friends and loved ones really affordably.”

The same CNN article states that, “The move puts WhatsApp in competition not only with other messaging apps that offer voice but chat tools such as Skype and even mobile carriers. WhatsApp’s unlimited texting has already helped establish it in places where smartphones and fancy data plans are less common.” Now Facebook will be in competition with many different phone or chat services which puts it in a better position than it has been in the past few years.

Senior Maddie Dirats says, “I use WhatsApp to connect with my friends outside the country. The Bahamas have terrible phone service so WhatsApp lets me keep in touch with them when I’m not down there. It is really convenient and easy to use. I love it.” Dirats added, “I don’t understand how Facebook benefits from buying WhatsApp. Facebook already has a functioning international chat and video chat component so I wonder what they are going to do with WhatsApp.”

Facebook buying WhatsApp was a big move which has raised a lot of questions. Only time will tell if the 19 billion dollar buy was a good one.