WhatsApp popularity continues to grow, hits 500 million active users

 The popularity of the cross-platform messaging app WhatsApp continues to grow in leaps and bounds with the latest revelation that its user base has crossed the 500 million mark.

Apparently, these 500 million people are not only registered members but also active users. The rapid growth of Internet-based messaging app which was snapped up by Facebook in February this year for a whopping sum of $19 billion is nothing short of remarkable. Since its acquisition by the social networking site the company has added 50 million users.


 WhatsApp had 200 million users last year in August, but the number swelled to 430 million in January 2014. The instant messaging app reportedly processes 50 billion messages on an average every day and users are sharing 700 million photos and 100 million videos per day.

 “Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users. 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 are just getting started,” read an official company blog post.

The fastest growth has been witnessed in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia. Speaking about India alone, the nation constitutes almost 10 per cent (9.6 per cent to be exact) of the total user base of WhatsApp. Currently, India is the single largest country for the company, with the service having 48 million monthly actives users (MAUs). In just two months, the company has added 8 million MAU’s (WhatsApp had 40 million users in India as of Feb 2014).

WhatsApp has achieved these numbers by joining forces with a number of telecom operators in the country including Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo and Uninor.

As per, WhatsApp's Neeraj Arora the service in India is gaining 4 million active users every month and that the country’s user base is likely to surpass the 50 million mark in May.Close on heels is Brazil with 45 million actives while Turkey has 14 million active users. Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp says in a post on company’s blog that they have not made any huge changes in WhatsApp over the last six months, except around 1,000 little bug fixes and improvements. Plans to add a voice calling feature in the app are in the pipeline and features is likely to be rolled out in the next few months.