WhatsApp announced Tuesday that it currently has 500 million users actively using the messaging service to share more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos each day.
WhatsApp, the world's most popular instant messaging service, has reached a new milestone of 500 million monthly active users despite the Facebook backlash. The $19 billion deal with Facebook may not have been welcoming news for several users, raising concerns over data privacy, but WhatsApp seems unaffected as it continues to grow at a rapid pace. The cross-platform messaging service added 50 million users since February, when Facebook announced the acquisition.
The consistent growth of WhatsApp could either be the compelling nature and the simplicity of the app, or the company's promise not to store any personal information related to its users, such as names, email addresses, birthdays, location, images or videos. WhatsApp reassured its users that the partnership with Facebook will not change its values. As a result, the company has reached half a billion people who use the service regularly.
"Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users," the Facebook-owned instant messaging service wrote in a short blog, Tuesday. "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."
While WhatsApp holds a significant position in certain markets, in countries like the U.S. and Japan, it faces stronger competition from rival apps like Tango, Line, Snapchat and Viber. More recently, Facebook also announced that it is mandating its Messenger app to chat with Facebook friends, a move which is aimed to boost the user-base for its chat application.
With the new milestone, WhatsApp has a bigger user-base than Twitter (232 million users), Instagram (150 million users) and Google Plus (about 300 million users). If the growth continues at the same pace, WhatsApp will soon be compared with Facebook's 1.23 billion monthly active users.
