WhatsApp now has 1 billion daily active users

27 Jul 2017

WhatsApp has announced that its user base has touched 1 billion daily active users. The app sees more than 55 billion messages being shared every day, of which over 1 billion are video messages alone, and more than 4.5 billion messages are photos only.

According to the company the app is used in more than 60 languages.

WhatsApp further revealed that it counted over 250 million daily users on the Status feature. The announcement comes as part of Facebook's Q2 2017 results, which revealed how the company's mobile ads are increasing. Facebook shares rose to an all time-high after the company announced its results.

WhatsApp has over 200 million users in India, and given the popularity of the app, it is likely to continue to grow in the market, according to commentators. The app's video-calling and voice-calling feature are becoming popular with users.

But WhatsApp's actual monetisation potential was yet to be realised by the company. The app was now expected to roll out services, which could allow businesses like banks, airlines, etc to interact directly with the customers on the messaging platform.

The idea was that WhatsApp in the future could entirely replace SMS for users, and be the main platform for interaction between businesses and customers.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had over 2 billion users in total, with 1.3 billion people using it every day. He also announced that 100 million people joined groups, and 2 billion messages were sent between people and businesses every month.

''As we celebrate this milestone, we're committed more than ever to bringing you more useful features to enjoy, while delivering the reliability, simplicity, and security you expect with WhatsApp,'' WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said a blog.