Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has said there won't be any "changes" to popular instant messaging service WhatsApp.
Zuckerberg was speaking at a live keynote address held at the 2014 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain on Monday night where he said that WhatsApp is planned to continue operating autonomously.
His statement follows last week's announcement that Facebook would purchase WhatsApp for an estimated $19 billion.
According to Reuters, the cash and stock deal involves “$4 billion in cash, $12 billion in stock and $3 billion in restricted stock that vests over several years”.
Commenting on reasons for the WhatsApp purchase, Zuckerberg simply said, "WhatsApp is a great company and is a great fit for Facebook."
He further explained, "WhatsApp is on a path of connecting more than a billion people and there are very few services in the world that can reach that level. When we had the opportunity to be a part of this journey I was really excited to be a part of helping that dream of connecting a lot more people."
Zuckerberg added that WhatsApp's vision to connect more people also fits with his goal of connecting everyone in the world through his Internet.org initiative.
The goal of Internet.org is to make internet access available to two thirds of the world who are not yet connected.
"It is a model for this industry that can deliver internet to ultimately everyone in the world and in doing so build a profitable model with more subscribers for carriers and get everyone on the internet," he said.
Only a third of the globe’s population -- about 2.7 billion people -- are connected to the internet, according to Zuckerberg.
"This is actually growing slower than you imagine," he said.
"We really are not on a path to connecting everyone unless something dramatic changes," he said.
Zuckerberg explained that connectivity could help bring essential services in emerging markets such as basic financial offerings, and access to basic health and education facilities.
(Photo taken by Simnikiwe Mzekandaba.)
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