SAN FRANCISCO: WhatsApp has reached 900 million monthly active users, cementing Facebook’s dominance in mobile messaging.
Facebook owns the world’s two most popular apps: WhatsApp, which it bought for billions, and its homegrown app, Facebook Messenger, which recently announced it has 700 million monthly active users.
WhatsApp founder Jan Koum made the announcement on Facebook on Thursday evening.
Monthly active users isn’t the best way to measure activity on a messaging app. WhatsApp did not say how many messages are being sent each day, for example. But the growth is impressive. WhatsApp announced it had crossed 800 million in April. That is no small feat for either app: Smartphone owners spend more time in messaging apps than any other app.
Messenger is also surging in popularity. It’s now the second-most popular app in the U.S, surpassing Google-owned YouTube, according to a comScore report.
By way of comparison: Twitter has a bit more than 300 million monthly active users. Instagram, the photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook, also has about 300 million.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/09/04/whatsapp-facebook-900-million-mark-zuckerberg-jan-koum-messenger/71704760/
