Brian Acton

“Yes, I was a big math and computer geek, that's true. I was driven by the scholastic side of things. For me, it was all about what I could do with math and computers.”

“It's not 100 per cent clear to me what's working about Snapchat.”

“My DNA is building a product and a service.”

“You have a certain identity that you present to the world on Facebook, and you have a certain identity that you present with the telephone, and they are different.”

“In early 2010, we launched our first localized version of 'WhatsApp' for iPhone. It included Spanish and German language translations, to name a couple.”

“Dealing with ads is depressing. You don't make anyone's life better by making advertisements work better.”

“Building secure products actually makes for a safer world; many people in law enforcement may not agree with that.”

“WhatsApp provides phone-number-based messaging, and people asked, 'Isn't that what SMS is?' Yes, but SMS is expensive, antiquated, and what WhatsApp did was modernize and level that playing field. For example, in Europe, if France wants to talk to Belgium, it's extraordinary costly because of border and telecom charges.”

“FreeBSD has a nicely tuned network stack and extremely good reliability.”

“There's a certain degree of speculation that goes into valuations. In so far as the market supports a valuation, everyone who gets a great one deserves it, but they should also be cautious because that speculation is temporary. I saw Yahoo go from $100 billion to $10 billion. It's not a long-term measure.”

“You never want to be in a position where you can't make payroll.”

“Going public is 18-month process, while an acquisition is a 6-month process. Going public means going under so much scrutiny, regulatory approval, auditing, magnified 10 times. Having the stomach to do that isn't necessarily in my DNA. My DNA is building a product and a service.”

“The best part of working with Facebook has been the cross-fertilization of ideas, people, and technology.”

“WhatsApp will bring Facebook another billion users. We will be a billion-user product. Whether there is a direct valuation or an indirect valuation, there is value, and Facebook understands that well.”

“I think every acquisition is unique and different. The best strategy is to listen to the founders and follow their lead.”

“I don't really want to be in the business of observing conversations.”

“The phone is one hundred, one hundred and ten years old. There was a middle period where the government had a broad ability to surveil, but if you look at human history in total, people evolved and civilizations evolved with private conversations and private speech.”

“When I worked at Yahoo, I saw a lot of acquisitions. Some succeeded, and some failed. I think I have learned from that.”

“My mom started an air-freight company; my grandmother built a golf course. I have a certain degree of entrepreneurial risk-taking in my family history. Maybe that eventually rubbed off on me a little bit.”

“People want chat histories. They're a permanent testimony of a relationship.”