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Brian Acton persuades five ex-Yahoo! friends to invest $250,000 in seed funding, and is granted co-founder status.
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WhatsApp 2.0 is released on the App Store for the iPhone
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WhatsApp for the iPhone is updated to send photos.
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Jan Koum incorporates WhatsApp in California
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WhatsApp support for Android OS is added
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SnapChat, a competing photo messaging app, is founded.
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WeChat, a messenger app, is founded.
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The WhatsApp support staff announce that messages were encrypted in the "latest version" of the WhatsApp software for iOS and Android (but not BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian), without specifying the cryptographic method.
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WhatsApp's user base swells to about 200 million active users and its staff to 50
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Sequoia invests another $50 million in Series B round, valuing WhatsApp at $1.5 billion.