One Billion Users and Counting, WhatsApp Extends its Lead

WhatsApp has been the world’s most popular messaging app for quite some time. Now, according to a research carried out by SimilarWeb, a Britain based digital market intelligence company, WhatsApp has more than one billion active users in the world. The study also revealed that, out of the 187 countries surveyed, WhatsApp was the leader in almost 109 countries including India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, and many more. Well, that is about 55.6 percent of the world.

Facebook Messenger came in at second while Viber claimed third in the list of the world’s most popular instant messaging apps. Messenger was more popular than WhatsApp in about 49 countries which include the likes of Canada, Australia and the US. On the other hand, Viber has high popularity in Eastern European countries like Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. In Ukraine, the app was installed in more than 60 percent of all Android devices, as of April 2016.

WhatsApp, launched in 2009, touched the 500 million user mark back in April 2014. However, in roughly two years the app has amassed another 500 million users, an astonishing growth statistic. The app has a strong foothold in India with more than 70 million users who spend about 37 minutes on the app every day. Moreover, WhatsApp is installed in 94.8 percent of all Android devices in the country, the report claims.

Additionally, apps like Line, WeChat and Telegram made it into the list for being popular in multiple countries. Apart from these, some apps were found to be popular in one country alone such as KakaoTalk in South Korea, Zalo in Vietnam, imo in Cuba, and ChatOn in Eritrea. Incredibly, the research also observed that Blackberry’s BBM is alive and very much popular in Indonesia.