A former WhatsApp executive "regrets" signing a partnership deal with Facebook.
Neeraj Arora was the Chief Business Officer of WhatsApp when the communications app was purchased by Facebook for $16 billion but now claims it is a " shadow" of its former self before it was bought by the Meta-based app.
In a blog post published on LinkedIn, he said: "Today, WhatsApp is Facebook's second largest platform (even bigger than Instagram or FB Messenger). Today, I regret it. But it's a shadow of the product we poured our hearts into, and wanted to build for the world. And I am not the only one who regrets that it became part of Facebook when it did. Tech companies need to admit when they have done wrong."
Ajora went on to claim that Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg first approached with an offer to WhatsApp in 2012 but declined and only accepted when Zuckerberg implied it would be more of a "partnership".
The app was eventually taken over by the Meta giant and the former boss went on to slam the social media corporation as a "Frankenstein monster" who "spat out dirty money."
He added: "In 2012/13, we were approached by Zuck Facebook about an acquisition. We declined and decided to keep growing instead. FB approached us again early 2014 with an offer that made it look like a partnership with full support for end-to-end encryption, no ads (ever) and [we would have] complete independence on product decisions. But by 2017 and 2018, things started to look very different.
Nobody knew in the beginning that Facebook would become a Frankenstein monster that devoured user data and spat out dirty money."
