Facebook’s Big Risk From Antitrust Suit Is Losing WhatsApp

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 23, 2019. Photo: AP

Alex Heath

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Christopher Stern

Facebook has yet to make much money off WhatsApp, the private messaging app it bought for $19 billion more than six years ago. But if the federal government succeeds in a landmark antitrust lawsuit that seeks to unwind Facebook’s marquee acquisitions, losing WhatsApp would hurt the company’s future ambitions the most.

While Instagram is already generating tens of billions of dollars in ad revenue, WhatsApp represents CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s bet on the future of social networking as people gravitate to sharing in private spaces rather than public feeds. Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have said messaging is critical to the company’s future. Plus, as Facebook’s growth slows in its core markets of North America and Europe, WhatsApp’s prevalence in India and other parts of the world will likely contribute more to the company’s bottom line in the years to come.

Despite these expectations, Facebook has not technically integrated WhatsApp with its other messaging apps, potentially making it easier to spin it off if antitrust authorities get their way.