WhatsApp Declined Purchase Offers from Facebook, Google, Tencent Holdings

In an article detailing the competitive third party messaging market, the Wall Street Journal reveals popular cross-platform app WhatsApp had declined purchase offers from Facebook, Google and Tencent Holdings (a Chinese investment holding company, operator of Tencent QQ instant messenger):

Facebook acquired mobile messaging startup Beluga in 2011 and recently expressed interest in buying WhatsApp Inc.—a company that has also been approached by Google and Tencent Holdings Ltd., people familiar with the matter said. The company, which consistently appears near the top of Apple’s list of top paid mobile apps, wasn’t interested in selling.

You may recall previous rumours from last December noted Facebook was in talks to acquire WhatsApp. The latter dumped cold water on the report saying it wasn’t true, but the WSJ source from above seemingly adds credibility to the original TechCrunch report. WhatsApp keeps its iOS download numbers private, but in January the company reported it was handling 18 billion messages per day.

Recently, the messenger app made headlines in this country as the Canadian Privacy Commissioner released a detailed report citing how WhatsApp violated privacy guidelines.

As for other notable apps mentioned, Viber CEO Talmon Marco noted their subscriber base has more than tripled from a year ago, which now sits at over 175 million. What’s your third party messaging app of choice?