The introduction of free calls, revealed on the opening day of the four-day World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, would match rival application Viber's similar offering.
"We are going to introduce voice on WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year," WhatsApp founder Jan Koum said.
Facebook, whose 29-year-old billionaire creator Mark Zuckerberg was the star speaker on the opening day of the industry fair, announced a stock and cash purchase of WhatsApp on Wednesday.
"Five years ago we had no users, no product," said Koum.
"Today we have 465 million active users," he said, adding that the company still had no marketing, relying mostly on word of mouth to prosper.
WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real-time mobile messaging service, with:
Over 450 million people using the service each month;
70% of those people active on a given day;
Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume; and
Continued strong growth, currently adding more than one million new registered users per day.
WhatsApp had not planned any changes in the light of the Facebook takeover, Koum said.
"Mark really understands that for WhatsApp to stay successful it really needs to stay independent," he said.
Viber, one of WhatsApp's key rivals, offers free voice and messaging.
Japanese online shopping group Rakuten announced this month that it would buy Viber's Cyprus-based developer, Viber Media, for $900 million (R9 600 million).
"We are going to introduce voice on WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year," WhatsApp founder Jan Koum said.
Facebook, whose 29-year-old billionaire creator Mark Zuckerberg was the star speaker on the opening day of the industry fair, announced a stock and cash purchase of WhatsApp on Wednesday.
"Five years ago we had no users, no product," said Koum.
"Today we have 465 million active users," he said, adding that the company still had no marketing, relying mostly on word of mouth to prosper.
WhatsApp has built a leading and rapidly growing real-time mobile messaging service, with:
Over 450 million people using the service each month;
70% of those people active on a given day;
Messaging volume approaching the entire global telecom SMS volume; and
Continued strong growth, currently adding more than one million new registered users per day.
WhatsApp had not planned any changes in the light of the Facebook takeover, Koum said.
"Mark really understands that for WhatsApp to stay successful it really needs to stay independent," he said.
Viber, one of WhatsApp's key rivals, offers free voice and messaging.
Japanese online shopping group Rakuten announced this month that it would buy Viber's Cyprus-based developer, Viber Media, for $900 million (R9 600 million).
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