Facebook Scoops PayPal President David Marcus For Message Products Division
Facebook views messaging as a core part of its social networking service and a key element in its mission to connect the world. According to Facebook, around 12 billion messages are sent on Facebook per day, while its standalone messaging app is now used by more than 200 million people every month.
Image Source: Flickr (Marco Paköeningrat)
"We're excited about the potential to continue developing great new messaging experiences that better serve the Facebook community and reach even more people, and David will be leading these efforts," Facebook said.
A true geek and self-motivated worker, David taught himself to write code at just 8 years old. By the time he turned 23 years old, David had launched his first startup. He joined PayPal in 2011 as VP of mobile and was responsible for leading PayPal's mobile payments business before becoming the company's president the following year.
With David being handed the reins to Messenger, it will be interesting to see if Facebook continues to pursue Snapchat, a third-party messaging app that allows users to send images and photos that expire after a set time period. It's been reported that Snapchat previously turned down separate $1 billion and $3 billion buyout bids from Facebook.