WHATSAPP Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 aided the social networking site’s future as a provider of mobile interfaces. Yet Facebook is preparing for the possibility that its social network’s popularity may fade. In 2014, Facebook paid $19 billion for WhatsApp, a cross-platform instant messaging service with more than 480 million users worldwide. The price was steep, but Facebook wanted a stake in the global IM business to complement its social media business. Prior to WhatsApp’s purchase by Facebook, the service’s owners had vowed to keep advertising off its platform. Facebook said it would honor that pledge.

Victor Idrogo/El Comercio de Peru/Newscom