A empresa californiana foi creada no ano 2009 por Brian Acton e Koum Jan, ambos ex traballadores de [[Yahoo!]]. En decembro de 2013, a aplicación acadou os 400 millóns de usuarios activos.
'''WhatsApp Inc.''', con base en [[Mountain View, California|Mountain View]], California, foi comprada por [[Facebook]] Inc. en febreiro de 2014. por 19.300 millóns de $US <ref name="wsj20140220">{{cite news|last1 = Albergotti|first1 = Reed|title = Facebook's $18 Billion Deal Sets High Bar|newspaper = [[The Wall Street Journal]]|date = February 20, 2014|last2 = MacMillan|first2 = Douglas|last3 = Rusli|first3 = Evelyn M.|pages= A1, A6}}</ref><ref name="fb-buyout">{{cite press release |title= Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp |url= http://newsroom.fb.com/News/805/Facebook-to-Acquire-WhatsApp | date= February 19, 2014 }}</ref>19.3 billion.<ref name="wsj20140220">{{cite news|last1 = Albergotti|first1 = Reed|title = Facebook's $18 Billion Deal Sets High Bar|newspaper = [[The Wall Street Journal]]|date = February 20, 2014|last2 = MacMillan|first2 = Douglas|last3 = Rusli|first3 = Evelyn M.|pages = A1, A6}}</ref><ref name="fb-buyout">{{cite press release |title= Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp |url= http://newsroom.fb.com/News/805/Facebook-to-Acquire-WhatsApp | date= February 19, 2014 }}</ref>.
