system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How is Time Warner Cable only worth $45 Billion but a simple app like WhatsApp is worth $16 billion?
gpt
Valuation of companies is a very, very tricky business. TWC is actually a lot easier to value than WhatsApp, as its assets and liabilities are very well understood. As it doesn't actually compete directly with Comcast (for regulatory reasons too complicated to go into here), it was significantly just a question of figuring out TWC's net worth and expected profitability, both of which are easy to do if you've got the right numbers (which Comcast presumably did). 

But when Facebook bought WhatsApp, they were probably thinking not only about WhatsApp's actual current and future revenue, but about (1) acquiring potentially valuable IP for Facebook's own use, (2) eliminating potential competition for Facebook by simply buying it out, and (3) preventing another competitor, like Google, from buying it first. That means that they were valuing the company not based simply on its current financials, but of the implications of its technology on the market as a whole. Basically, it seems that Facebook probably thought that it would likely *lose* money if it didn't buy WhatsApp. Now we value the company based on Facebook's revenue and profits, not WhatsApp's.