The planet is increasingly connected on Facebook.
More than 1.2 billion people actively use the Site each month on the web and, on mobile devices.
And it's this particular market that Facebook stept in with its latest purchase, WhatsApp.
WhatsApp allows users to send text messages on phones for free making it extremely popular.
450 million people currently use WhatsApp,
and it's growing rapidly by roughly 1 million new users each day.
Facebook has agreed to pay $16 billion for it,
a quarter of which in cash and the rest its stock.
WhatsApp founders will receive a further $3 billion worth of restricted stock,
bringing the overall deal to $19 billion.
This dwarfs some of its previous acquisitions.
including photos showing app Instagram and the face recognition platform, face.com.
In Silicon Valley where I am right now,
there are a lot of very smart entrepreneurs who are doing exciting things.
And often the most exciting project don't come from the big company,
but from the small startup.
Then, so the best way to get the talent is to acquire them,
usually not at that price tag but whatever it takes to get that kind of talent,
that kind of user base.
Now, although facebook says it will keep WhatsApp a separate service,
the purchase allows it to continue gathering valuable data from its customers,
which can eventually turned into revenue-generating services.