One in seven people on the planet use WhatsApp

Planet Earth

If you live in the United States you likely use Snapchat, Facebook Messenger, maybe even something like Voxer but it’s unlikely that you use WhatsApp. Yes, WhatsApp, the company that Facebook acquired for a whopping $19B now has over one billion monthly active users (Source – Forbes). This is even more than Facebook’s own messenger service which boasts 800 million monthly active users.

whats-app-billion-users

(Sources – Forbes, Statista)

So where is WhatsApp so popular? In India, Mexico, and Brazil you don’t text someone, and you don’t Snapchat with them, you WhatsApp them. Smartphone have become much more accessible in countries like India and the adoption rates are growing exponentially:

“More than 1 billion smartphones shipped last year. In India, 26 million of them — 58 percent of the market — cost less than $150, according to research firm IDC.” (Source – Wired)

It can be easy to think that you’re on the pulse of what’s happening in the world, but in reality many of us are mostly aware of what’s happening here at home. It’s incredible to see a small, well-executed startup (WhatsApp only has 50 engineers (Source – Wired)) achieving such amazing growth.

In the battle of the messaging apps it looks like Facebook might just own the market, for now.

Photo Credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Compfight cc
Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton