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You mentioned in one of your talks about a small loophole in the early days of the App Store where apps were showcased under "new and noteworthy" if one made an update to the app - Q1: is this true?

And Q2: when you say "took off on its own" does it mean folks learned about WhatsApp only from word of mouth with no effort from the WhatsApp team?

Q3: what impact did charging for the app have on the company finances and growth rate?

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1. yes, i believe so - of course it was eight years ago.. i think if you submitted new version of the app and changed the name, it would show up under "new" category

2. yes, word of mouth only... but we helped people spread the word by putting "Tell A Friend" functionality into the app :)

3. it helped us pay for office space, salaries and server bills without eating much into VC or angel money we had in our bank account.

Thank you for the answers.

Re #2: I remember hearing about WhatsApp from my friends in 2009 or 2010. They said, "it's basically BBM that lets you communicate with non-Blackberry phones for free." Since those of us who had Blackberries used BBM non-stop, it was a no-brainer to get WhatsApp.

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