WhatsApp now has more than a billion active monthly users

Shawn Knight

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Staff member

Instant messaging client WhatsApp has joined the one billion user club. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed the milestone on the social network, congratulating co-founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum on the achievement.

If you recall, Facebook acquired the mobile messaging app for $19 billion nearly two years ago. Since that time, Zuckerberg said the community has more than doubled with 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos being exchanged each day.

WhatsApp has come a very long way since launching in 2009. When we started charging its growth in late 2013, the service already had more than 400 million active monthly users. Eight months later, WhatsApp crossed the 600 million active monthly user milestone before eclipsing 700 million just five months after that.

Perhaps what's most impressive of all is that WhatsApp currently has just 57 engineers on its team (and the backing of Facebook, of course).

In January 2015, WhatsApp finally added a desktop web application to supplement its mobile-first offering and last month, the service dropped its $0.99 annual subscription fee. A buck a year isn't much in the eyes of the consumer but more importantly, it eliminated the need for a credit card – a real barrier for some, especially younger users.

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Of those 42 billion messages sent and received everyday, I'm responsible for a fair number of them. I can make do without any app on my phone apart from WhatsApp.
 
Of those 42 billion messages sent and received everyday, I'm responsible for a fair number of them. I can make do without any app on my phone apart from WhatsApp.

Same here... I use imessage for certain people and its so archaic. Just don't understand how Apple doesn't see WhatsApp and completely copy its features. Makes no sense.
 
I find it crazy that there are a billion active users, but I have it and I don't know a single person who uses it. I mentioned this article to two of my friends, and they didn't even know what Whatsapp is. I know it's more actively used in other countries other than the US, but with a billion users, I thought I'd know someone who uses it.
 
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