With 450 million users, WhatsApp is the market leader in mobile messaging. Chief Executive Jan Koum says his company’s goal from the start was “to be on every single smartphone in the world.”

　　Facebook is betting WhatsApp can help it go beyond competitors in messaging, the new communication medium of choice.

　　Survival at stake (在紧急关头)

　　The stakes could not be higher for Facebook. More people are communicating on their mobile devices rather than sending information to hundreds of friends on social networks. Its very survival depends on its ability to obtain the new ways people are connecting and sharing.

　　By that logic, the price Facebook is paying for WhatsApp isn’t so bubbly (多泡的), said David Wessels, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

　　“As a stand-alone company, WhatsApp is clearly not worth $19 billion, period,” Wessels said. “But by no means would I consider this unreasonable. Would you give away 10 percent of your company to extend the life of your company?”

　　A wise investment?

　　At first, Facebook investors did experience what analyst Arvind Bhatia called “sticker shock” after learning that Facebook planned to pay $19 billion for WhatsApp, a company that had declared it had no plans to make money any time soon.

　　But investors quickly neglected concerns. Shares of Facebook briefly hit a record high the day after the sale was announced.

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