When Gary Klassen created BBM in 2005, BlackBerry wasn't inventing messaging – IM applications were well established on the desktop for a decade with ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, and MSN Messenger. The free IM services prevents rivals creating a layer of communication infrastructure. Today WhatsApp has 1.2 billion users and doesn't even pretend to make money from it. BlackBerry's lawsuit covers not just Facebook's eponymous home-grown Messenger but Instagram too. That's because, BlackBerry says, it tried to get the social media outfits to do the right thing and pay a licence fee, but they have refused.įacebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $19bn, or $45 for every user's address book (the intrusive app rummages through your contacts many thousand times a week). The only remarkable thing about BlackBerry's litigation against Facebook and Instagram is that it took so long to file. Very flattering to see Apple 'borrow' numerous WhatsApp features into iMessage in iOS 8 #innovation People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. WhatsApp shamelessly stole,' wrote Kevin Michaluk. 'Anybody who's followed the development of WhatsApp from its earliest days knows that WhatsApp 100 per cent systematically ripped off BBM feature by feature. Analysis When WhatsApp founder Jan Koum complained that Apple was ripping off his app, the derision from the BlackBerry community was instant.

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