When was WhatsApp founded?

The story behind the answer

WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, former Yahoo engineers. Koum incorporated WhatsApp Inc. on February 24, 2009, in Mountain View, California. The app initially showed status updates, then pivoted to messaging after Apple introduced push notifications in mid-2009—sparking its rapid growth.

Context that sticks: WhatsApp’s laser focus on simplicity, no ads, and cross-platform reliability helped it spread globally, leading to Facebook’s (now Meta’s) $19 billion acquisition in 2014 and default end-to-end encryption in 2016. Memory tip: “What’s up in ’09? WhatsApp began.”