WhatsApp continues to march closer to the one billion mark. Jan Koum, WhatsApp CEO and co-Founder, announced that the messaging app now serve approximately 800 million active users, doing so just months for revealing that WhatsApp had reached the 700 million mark.
The messaging app reached the 800 million mark for active users, which is very different from registered users. Koum kindly pointed out that there is a difference.
"WhatsApp - now serving 800,000,000 monthly active users," stated Koum in a Facebook post. "Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing."
For the sake of contining the points, the tally of active users only counts individuals who log in at least once during a month.
Some users have multiple accounts and rarely use one or more. Others simply have moved on and haven't deleted their accounts yet -- maybe Koum should use a whiteboard next time.
The acquisition of WhatsApp was a big bet for Facebook, but the $19 billion deal is now starting to pay off. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently stated that WhatsApp would be a key contributor to Facebook once the messaging app has eclipsed the mark at one million active users served.
While WhatsApp isn't quite where Zuckerberg wants to be, it has already passed Facebook Messenger's monthly active user account by about 200 milllion users. Facebook has big plans for WhatsApp, but the company is "pretty early" in the cycle for messaging, stated Zuckerberg on a recent call with investors.
"We are about where Facebook was in around 2006 or 2007, where, at that point, Facebook is really just a consumer product -- there were no businesses in the ecosystem," said Zuckerberg.
When Facebook purchased WhatsApp last year, the messaging app served about 450 million users each month. It was adding about a million new users each day and was drawing near to the global SMS volume.
"WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people," stated Zuckerberg shortly after the deal was announced. "The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable."
WhatsApp and its rivals have been doing so well, the European Commission is taking into consideration apps and cable companies when its draws up new rules to govern its telecom market. Traditional telecoms have to compete with "over-the-top services" that aren't governed by the same rules, according to Reuters take on the incomplete document.
