WhatsApp Hits 1 Billion Daily Users Plus its Snapchat Knockoff Excels

WhatsApp just hit 1 billion daily users. To put that in perspective, this would indicate that 1 out of every 7 people in the world use WhatsApp daily.

Social media continues to grow exponentially, and there’s no end in sight.

When Facebook bought Whatsapp in 2014 for $19 billion USD, WhatsApp had 450 million monthly users and 350 million daily users. In February last year, that number grew to 1 billion monthly users.

That’s quite a way for Facebook to circumvent the Great Firewall. However, it’s looking more and more like China is putting WhatsApp on the docket for permabanning.

Nevertheless, WhatsApp now has 1.3 billion monthly users and 1 billion daily users.

WhatsApp Hits 1 Billion Daily Users

In a post on their blog, WhatsApp reiterated its commitment to continuously improving the app:

“AS WE CELEBRATE THIS MILESTONE, WE’RE COMMITTED MORE THAN EVER TO BRINGING YOU MORE USEFUL FEATURES TO ENJOY, WHILE DELIVERING THE RELIABILITY, SIMPLICITY, AND SECURITY YOU EXPECT WITH WHATSAPP. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT.”

Mark Zuckerberg also announced in a post on his Facebook profile that over 250 million also use Whatsapp Status daily.

This puts WhatsApp Status competitively ahead of its possible inspiration, Snapchat, which has 166 million daily users.

Is This Threatening Anyone?

Technically WhatsApp is a threat to both Snapchat and Instagram but considering the fact that Facebook owns both WhatsApp and Instagram, the only app which faces any real threat here is Snapchat.

And Snapchat must be looking for opportunities to respond. As Instagram stories launched last year, we saw Snapchat growth begin to slow down. Since then, we’ve seen almost no change in growth rate for the app despite several attempts to stay ahead of Facebook and Instagram.

What’s Next For Whatsapp?

We believe it won’t be long before WhatsApp starts sweeping monetization–despite Mark Zuckerberg saying WhatsApp is still early on the monetization side.

WhatsApp developers are reportedly testing a system that will allow businesses to talk to WhatsApp users directly.

How could Whatsapp Status pose a real threat to Snapchat?