By Nixon Kanali
The EU has finally given a green light to Facebook’s acquisition of mobile messenger service WhatsApp. According to the EU, both Facebook and WhatsApp are not close competitors and that consumers would continue to have a wide choice of alternative consumer communications apps after the transaction.
The $19bn deal is the largest in Facebooks’ ten-year history and according to the EU Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are two of the most popular apps, most people use more than one communications app.
”We have carefully reviewed this proposed acquisition and come to the conclusion that it would not hamper competition in this dynamic and growing market. Consumers will continue to have a wide choice of consumer communications apps.” He said
While investigating the Facebook WhatsApp deal, the EU was focusing on three areas: consumer communications services, social networking services, and online advertising services. The Commission said the consumer communications apps market is fast growing and characterised by short innovation cycles in which market positions are often reshuffled.
Launching a new app according to the EU is fairly easy and does not require significant time and investment. Finally, customers can and do use multiple apps at the same time and can easily switch from one to another
