A few days ago, MSQRD, the popular face-swapping application to record hilarious videos in celebrity masks for both iOS and Android has been acquired by Facebook.

The app, built by the Belarusian startup Masquerade, has quickly become successful, reaching the top of both App Store and Google Play. Zuckerberg, who expressed his interest in investing in recording and sharing videos, immediately seized the opportunity. The price of the acquisition has not been disclosed yet, however we believe that it could not have been cheap, especially after acquiring WhatsApp (click here) and Instagram.

Eugen Nevgen, Masquerade CEO, wrote in his company’s blog to be excited about partnering with Facebook and ready to bring his technology to more than 1.6 billion Facebook users. Both companies confirm that the app MSQRD will be kept separated from Facebook, so management and development will be independent in relation to commercial decisions.

The decision, as TechCrunch reports, has been viewed as an answer to the acquisition of Looksery, app that offers new selfie filters, by Snapchat. Facebook has already attempted, unsuccessfully, to buy the “ephemeral” messaging app (which has an audience of very young people by its side) for $ 3 billion.