Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has now won the multi-billion dollar bid against WhatsApp, which was objected by the European Union competition regulator. The social networking giant on Friday received a judgment in favor of the deal the company made. “We have carefully reviewed this proposed acquisition and come to the conclusion that it would not hamper competition,” European Commission Vice President in charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, said.
The Commission also looked into the possibilities where combining user data in place can be one-sided competition in the online advertising marketing. “Any privacy-related concerns flowing from the increased concentration of data within the control of Facebook as a result of the transaction do not fall within the scope of EU competition law,” it said.
Whereas, on the other hand, the council is also is not worried about Facebook merging the user base of WhatsApp into its services. Merging WhatsApp and Facebook users together, the social networking giant can increase its user base to a certain level.
“While Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are two of the most popular apps, most people use more than one communications app,” he said, adding that consumers will continue to have a wide choice of communications apps. However, on the flip side, most of the users are already on Facebook and WhatsApp.
The Commission also found that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are not close competitors, even though both allows users to communicate by sending texts, SMS, and media.
Except WhatsApp, there are also other messaging apps, including Telegram and Weechat, that allows the user to exchange messages, SMS, pictures, videos and stickers.
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