MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2014: WhatsApp will add voice to its service

BARCELONA – Give Jan Koum points for chutzpa. Standing on a stage with three huge wireless operators whose messaging revenue his company WhatsApp has ravaged over the past few years, he announced that by the end of the second quarter of this year, WhatsApp will also offer voice services.Texting and voice is a multi-billion-dollar business for cellcos worldwide, but that revenue has taken a serious hit with the likes of WhatsApp (465 million users) and Koreas Kakao (130 million) offering free cross-platform communications tools to consumers around the globe.Of course, WhatsApp was acquired last week by Facebook in a deal...