Nearly one in seven people on earth uses Whatsapp each month, as the company reaches the thirteen figures in users on Monday. The news came just over a week after the Facebook-owned app got rid of their $0.99 annual fee.
“WhatsApp began as a simple idea: ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standing in the way” published the company in its blog. “And yet, through all the progress we’ve made together over the last seven years, our mission has never changed,” they added.
The company also said that even as they celebrate that achievement, reaching that amount of users, their focus on the company and vision stay the same. Whatsapp’s speed, reliability, security and simplicity is being work by the team to continue improving their services. 6 billion people is left to reach, according to the post, and they still have a long way to go.
The messaging service likely became the second-most popular app on Earth after Facebook, if you leave all the synchronized Google’s apps on Android out. Although, Whatsapp is relatively unpopular in the United States, in Europe and South America and other developing economies like Africa and India, it has proven to be an efficient and popular app to share message photos and others.
In places where the mobile infrastructure is not fully developed, like India, the app provides a viable alternative to social media networks like Facebook, as reported by Wired.
The billion-user app will have now as a challenge to find a viable source of revenue. After the drop on their subscription fee, they declared that the company plans to make money through businesses that use the messaging app to communicate with consumers. The company is still evolving even after their acquisition by Facebook for a deal valued of $19 billion.
Source: WIRED