Innovation isn’t always the result of a breakthrough discovery.
WhatsApp is hardly revolutionary in terms of its technology, but it is easy to use and allows people to do what they want — chat securely (individually or in groups), share pictures and videos, make internet calls — all without fearing that someone is watching over their shoulder or playing with their data.
I love this! It wasn’t a few feature set, or new functionality that drove the creation of an application that now engages more than ONE BILLION USERS, it was listening to end users, identifying a pain point (in this case data privacy) and then creating a simple, easy-to-use product that solves a real-life problem. No new algorithm or cutting edge interface needed; all it took was a solid understanding of an actual problem that was affecting real people; people that wanted to message securely and not have their conversations become marketing fodder. A bit of human empathy and user research combined with the discipline necessary to keep their product simple and focused on providing value to their end users really paid off for the WhatsApp founders.
Source: WhatsApp Grew to One Billion Users by Focusing on Product, Not Technology