One company I decided to look into was WhatsApp. I am just
recently hearing of them, but they have been around for almost 10
years now. In 2012, WhatsApp was a small firm with only 30 full-
time and 5 part-time employees in Mountain View (Time Doctor,
n.d.). Like most app companies, they started off small and local.
WhatsApp started as an alternative to SMS (WhatsApp, 2022). Of
course, like most start-up companies, they began to grow and
couldn’t rely on just the 35-person team they had. So, they
outsourced. To keep operation costs down, they outsourced
development to developers in Russia, and for a fraction of the costs
it would have taken to keep business at home (Time Doctor, n.d.).
This move helped the company grow exponentially over the years,
selling to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion, but still operate as a
separate app. Both the founders of WhatsApp had a combined 20
years’ experience with Yahoo, so they knew and understood the
benefits and risks of outsourcing in order to help the company grow.
There is talent all over the world. If you’re looking to scale, but need to
keep costs down, look to outsourcing work to talent globally. Like
WhatsApp, after you grow, you can think about relocating your top
players to your home office (Time Doctor, n.d.).
References
About WhatsApp (2022).
WhatsApp. https://www.whatsapp.com/about
Outsourcing Examples: Companies That Outsourced to Fuel Growth.
(n.d.). Time Doctor. https://biz30.timedoctor.com/outsourcing-
examples/
