WhatsApp's active user base could be a cause
for worry among some tech companies and
wireless carriers.
The messaging service announced Thursday
that it has more than 250 million active users
-- making it on par with Skype, Facebook
Messenger, and Twitter, according to The Wall
Street Journal.
Twitter's most recent numbers show more than
200 million monthly active users, while
Skype's are 280 million and Facebook
Messenger's aren't reported but its app is
ranked sixth in free apps in Google Play,
according to the Journal.
In the U.S., WhatsApp is ranked first in paid
apps in the iTunes Store and 31st in free apps
in the Google Play Store (the app costs 99
cents for iOS and is free on Android for the first
year, and then costs 99 cents). During the
AllThingsD mobile conference in April,
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum hinted that the
service had surpassed Twitter's active users.
Besides having millions of users, WhatsApp is
also relaying billions of messages daily . The
service announced last week that it had
reached a new record of handling more than 27
billion messages in a 24-hour period. The
service's record before that was last December
when it handled 18 billion messages in one
day.
Wireless carriers make a big profit on text
messaging, and apps like WhatsApp are eating
into these earnings. Since WhatsApp offers a
free alternative to texting, users don't have to
pay for each message. According to a report
released in April by research firm Informa, text
messaging is on the decline due to chat
applications becoming users' preferred method
of communication.
However, Koum said during the AllThingsD
conference that carriers could easily turn
around and see his business as driving data
adoption. WhatsApp, Koum said, has
participated in a number of carrier partnerships
that further drive adoption and usage, including
local data deals in India and access to a
"roaming pass" with a partner in Hong Kong,
allowing users to travel elsewhere in Asia and
still use WhatsApp without extra fees.
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