This week Facebook finalised its acquisition of WhatsApp for the total of $22bn which is what prompted David Miliband, the former foreign secretary to tweet this:
Facebook raised $19b to buy Whatsapp,more than the total spend around the world on the humanitarian effort in 1 year: http://t.co/hIazm7rPO1
— David Miliband (@DMiliband) October 8, 2014
It’s pretty startling at first, but that one statistic really does tell you more about the world than a million could. David Miliband is now CEO of the International Rescue Committee which helps those suffering from humanitarian crises around the world rebuild their lives.
WhatsApp purchase v humanitarian aid spending
Values in $bn
As of October 9th 2014 only $8.46bn of the $17.23bn needed for humanitarian aid has been raised this year. It is a sobering thought that we now live in a world were tech companies such as Facebook have the ability to acquire and spend more money on one app than is being spent on combating some of the worlds biggest crises.
via independent
