WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service acquired by Facebook for $22 billion, announced Tuesday it has grown to 700 million monthly active users, up from 600 million in August.
WhatsApp now has more users than any other similar app, including Facebook Messenger, and has become an alternative to text messaging for many people around the world. But Facebook is hoping it can be much more.
In previous earnings calls with investors, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he expects WhatsApp to contribute to the company's bottom line, but not until it reaches roughly a billion users. With Tuesday's announcement, the billion-user mark may soon be approaching.
WhatsApp gained 300 million users in about one year. It took Facebook roughly a year and a half to climb from 400 million to 700 million users, though that was in 2010 and 2011 before a massive shift by users to smartphones.
But Facebook revealed last year that WhatsApp lost about $230 million in the first half of last year on revenue of about $15 million. Unlike Facebook, which makes the bulk of its revenue from advertising, WhatsApp offers 99-cent annual subscriptions after a free first year. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum had said the company scaled back efforts to make money after Facebook agreed to acquire the company last February.
In the U.S., messaging apps haven't caught on as wildly as they have internationally, in part because American cell phone plans often include unlimited text messaging. Overseas, WhatsApp faces a sea of worthy competitors. There's China's WeChat, South Korea's KakaoTalk, Japan's Line and, of course, Snapchat in the U.S.
The popularity of those apps varies by country, according to mobile-analytics company Mobidia ,which put together a nifty chart for Digits back in February. Russians love their Kakao Talk. Japan, not surprisingly, prefers to text on Line. Indonesia hearts Blackberry Messenger. Indians, though, are huge on WhatsApp.
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