WhatsApp essentially displaced Facebook as a Social Media platform of choice whilst also spelling doom for SMS, and VoIP in one fell swoop. WhatsApp, if it was an independent company like Larry Page pleaded with them to be, would have been the next $100B tech company. I feel the founders cashed out when there was no need for them to, plus they couldn't exercise the autonomy they were promised post-acquisition.
And how would they have monetized WhatsApp for it to be worth $100B?
Probably like WeChat, through a bunch of integrations with service providers & payment providers.
IE, text to get a pizza.
Good points :) I guess the IBM / Red Hat situation was left out because the mapping focused on FAAMG companies.