Gadgetory

Facebook wants to be king of the text message I'm Bridget Carey and this is your stat update when Facebook agreed to purchase whatsapp for 19 billion dollars most people were asking what's what's up well put simply it's a private messaging app that's massively popular around the world and people use it instead of sending regular SMS text messages whatsapp has 450 million monthly active users that's almost double the monthly active users of Twitter it's not as popular in America most folks in the u.s. don't bother with using a separate app for text messages because many wireless plans include unlimited texting but in other countries texting can be costly especially if you're texting friends and family living abroad whatsapp gets around the texting fees because it uses a data connection it's free for the first 12 months and only a dollar a year after that so you might ask how is whatsapp worth 19 billion dollars to Facebook it is a shocking amount of money but you can argue it was a good deal let's break it down each day what's up has 1 million new members signing up it won't be long before it hits a billion users with every member paying $1 annual subscription fees Facebook now is bringing in major revenue right now more than 18 billion messages are sent a day on whatsapp that includes texts and videos and photos but that's close to the same amount of regular SMS messages that are sent around the world each day from all the cellular companies combined this is becoming the more popular way to text whatsapp has a larger and faster growing user base than Twitter so if whatsapp is growing more than Twitter and Twitter's worth 30 billion dollars then Mark Zuckerberg got a good deal for paying 19 billion when you look at how often people use the app they use it more than Facebook about 70% of whatsapp users are engaging with the app each day compared to Facebook's 61% engagement this was Facebook's biggest mobile Challenger but not anymore in gadget news Xbox one owners will soon be able to buy a media remote for the console Microsoft announced the Xbox one media remote will hit stores in early March for $25 and if you wanted more tech in your toothbrush oral b announced a new smart series electric toothbrush that sends data to your smartphone using bluetooth yes a Bluetooth toothbrush it tracks how well you're brushing and reports back on an app it will be three hundred dollars when it goes on sale later this year that's your tech news update you can find more details at cnet.com slash up with the latest stories by following along on Twitter from our studios in New York I'm Bridget Carey