Whatsapp Now Has Half A Billion Users! Saw Fastest Growth In India


BANGALORE: WhatsApp, the instant messaging service now has 500 million active users across the world, beating even Facebook by length to become fastest growing service ever when it comes to rate of user acquisition. In an official blog the company on Wednesday also revealed that its users share 700 million photos and 100 million videos each day. On April 1 the company also declared that its users have shared 64 billion messages within 24 hours, creating a new record.

“Thank you all, half a billion people throughout the world are now regular and active users of WhatsApp,” the post read. "In the last few months, we've grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day. We could go on, but for now, it's more important that we get back to work - because here at WhatsApp, we're just getting started."

WhatsApp is way ahead in the race than its owner Facebook by acquiring 419 million users in the first four years after its launch whereas the social networking giant which bought instant messenger for whopping $19 billion had 145 million users, according to ReadWrite, a technology news website.  

Jan Koum, the CEO of WhatsApp said to Recode, a website that includes tech news, out of these 500 million users, about 48 million users are Indians, which is also the fastest growing user base for WhatsApp. In Brazil, the messaging app has 45 million users. Alltogether, WhatsApp and Facebook now possess nearly 1.5 billion active users, offering the networking giant a huge reach, especially on Smartphones.

In spite of the large user base, it is still unclear that how Facebook can monetize WhatsApp. The messaging service doesn’t host any advertisement and both CEOs have mentioned that this is not going to change anytime soon.

 “In spite of its rapid growth, we have not yet thought of monetizing WhatsApp,” Koum said to Recode. The main focus is on offering clean and usable instant messaging service, “there is no sufficient money and celebrities in the world to convince people to use worthless products. Nowadays people are so tech savvy. People look for a better user experience”, Koum added.

Koum also informed that the free voice call service on WhatsApp will make available to the users in the following months.

Read Also: Cool Drone Technologies Offered By Indian Companies and Linkedin Hits 300 Million Milestone; 50 Pct Traffic To Come From Mobile