Facebook just shelled out $19 billion for WhatsApp. You probably don’t need to be told that that’s a crazy amount of money.
Of course, you can’t judge the startup world’s finances to the real world’s; it’s all relative. But relatively be damned, because even taking that into consideration, this is still a mind-boggling amount of money.
So let’s get a little perspective on what WhatsApp’s $19 billion price tag really means.
In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 19 Instagrams.
In 2013, Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 17.3 Tumblrs.
In 2014, Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 5.9 Nests.
In 2005, News Corp bought (the original) MySpace for $580 million, so WhatsApp is worth 32.8 (original) MySpaces.
In 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 11.5 YouTubes.
In 2011, Microsoft bought Skype for $8.5 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 2.24 Skypes.
In 2012, Microsoft bought Yammer for $1.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 15.83 Yammers.
In 2013, Microsoft bought Nokia for $7.2 billion, so WhatsApp is worth 2.64 Nokias.
In 2005, Yahoo bought Flickr for $35 million, so WhatsApp is worth 542.9 Flickrs. (Sorry, no way I’m making that image.)
Photo via 401(K) 2013/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)