[ldng]

> The real reason WhatsApp were worth so much is they started to look like an existential threat to Facebook.

I disagree. The real reason were that part of their userbase was using Whatsapp on feature phone. It was as much a tech acquisition as a userbase acquisition. To get to the point Whatsapp was Facebook would have had to, develop the tech _and_ attract the users. In the end, buy whatsapp was faster, less risky (no guaranty they would have been abble to steal/convert the whole Whatsapp userbase) and probably cheaper.