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WhatsApp penetration in US only 20% Kenya 97%
WhatsApp is a messaging app for smartphones created in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum.
It was Koum who saw the potential of operating through the Apple App Store after purchasing an iPhone in early 2009. The app initially focused on statuses; Koum later revealed that part of his motivation was to stop missing calls will he was the gym.
The app, developed by Igor Solomennikov, who the team found through RentACoder.com, leveraged Apple’s new push notification feature to update users’ networks with status updates. Users quickly came to use this as an instant messaging service, planting the seed for what the app would become. WhatsApp 2.0 incorporated the messaging function that would come to be the app’s defining feature.
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WhatsApp was unique at the time, outside of Blackberry’s BBM, in providing a free message service that allowed users to log in with their phone number. WhatsApp 2.0 was an instant success, quickly reaching 250,000 active users. This was enough for Acton to convince a circle of fellow ex-Yahoo employees to part with $250,000 in seed funding.
WhatsApp incorporated multimedia messaging later in the same year, and was released on Android the following. From that point, WhatsApp marched to ubiquitous status, ranking in the top three most-downloaded apps on both iOS and Android. By October 2011, one billion messages were being sent per day; by early 2013, WhatsApp could boast 200 million active users. That figure is impressive enough, but by the end of 2017, WhatsApp was up to 1.5 billion active monthly users.
Naturally, this growth has attracted money – even with practically nonexistent WhatsApp revenue. Venture capital titans Sequoia Capital invested $8 million in April 2011 after eight months of negotiations, and a further $52 million in February 2013. This gave us a WhatsApp valuation of $1.5 billion.
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By this point it wasn’t only venture capital firms who were interested in the messaging service. Facebook clearly saw WhatsApp as a potential threat to its own offering, and therefore flexed its muscles. In February 2014, it moved to acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion – which remains its largest acquisition to date (and one of the largest tech acquisitions in history).
This has caused some degree of controversy related to data sharing with the parent company, despite promises of increasing levels of encryption, reportedly ‘end-to-end’ by 2016. Both founders have left the company based on these concerns, though Koum was reportedly continuing to make an income through resting and vesting.
WhatsApp, however, remains the market leader its sector. Since its simple beginnings, it has added features such as voice calling, video calling, group calls (video and voice), and in early 2018 launched WhatsApp Business. It has also moved into the payments market in its two biggest markets, India and Brazil.
To learn more about how many people use WhatsApp, how it compares to it rivals, and whether WhatsApp revenue figures have climbed, continue reading.
Table of Contents
WhatsApp Overview and Key Statistics
WhatsApp User Statistics
WhatsApp Usage Statistics
WhatsApp Revenue Statistics
WhatsApp Overview
Key WhatsApp User Statistics
Source: WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a messaging app for smartphones created in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum.
It was Koum who saw the potential of operating through the Apple App Store after purchasing an iPhone in early 2009. The app initially focused on statuses; Koum later revealed that part of his motivation was to stop missing calls will he was the gym.
The app, developed by Igor Solomennikov, who the team found through RentACoder.com, leveraged Apple’s new push notification feature to update users’ networks with status updates. Users quickly came to use this as an instant messaging service, planting the seed for what the app would become. WhatsApp 2.0 incorporated the messaging function that would come to be the app’s defining feature.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
WhatsApp was unique at the time, outside of Blackberry’s BBM, in providing a free message service that allowed users to log in with their phone number. WhatsApp 2.0 was an instant success, quickly reaching 250,000 active users. This was enough for Acton to convince a circle of fellow ex-Yahoo employees to part with $250,000 in seed funding.
WhatsApp incorporated multimedia messaging later in the same year, and was released on Android the following. From that point, WhatsApp marched to ubiquitous status, ranking in the top three most-downloaded apps on both iOS and Android. By October 2011, one billion messages were being sent per day; by early 2013, WhatsApp could boast 200 million active users. That figure is impressive enough, but by the end of 2017, WhatsApp was up to 1.5 billion active monthly users.
Naturally, this growth has attracted money – even with practically nonexistent WhatsApp revenue. Venture capital titans Sequoia Capital invested $8 million in April 2011 after eight months of negotiations, and a further $52 million in February 2013. This gave us a WhatsApp valuation of $1.5 billion.
Apptopia - App Market Intelligence Platform
Get accurate performance estimates for 3+ millions apps in 150+ countries. Make data driven decisions and optimize your app strategy.
Find out more
By this point it wasn’t only venture capital firms who were interested in the messaging service. Facebook clearly saw WhatsApp as a potential threat to its own offering, and therefore flexed its muscles. In February 2014, it moved to acquire WhatsApp for $19 billion – which remains its largest acquisition to date (and one of the largest tech acquisitions in history).
This has caused some degree of controversy related to data sharing with the parent company, despite promises of increasing levels of encryption, reportedly ‘end-to-end’ by 2016. Both founders have left the company based on these concerns, though Koum was reportedly continuing to make an income through resting and vesting.
WhatsApp, however, remains the market leader its sector. Since its simple beginnings, it has added features such as voice calling, video calling, group calls (video and voice), and in early 2018 launched WhatsApp Business. It has also moved into the payments market in its two biggest markets, India and Brazil.
To learn more about how many people use WhatsApp, how it compares to it rivals, and whether WhatsApp revenue figures have climbed, continue reading.
Table of Contents
WhatsApp Overview and Key Statistics
WhatsApp User Statistics
WhatsApp Usage Statistics
WhatsApp Revenue Statistics
WhatsApp Overview
| Launched | May 2003 |
| Parent company | Facebook (Since February 2014) |
| HQ | Menlo Park, California |
| Key people | Jan Koum (cofounder), Brian Acton (cofounder), Will Cathcart (Head of WhatsApp) |
| Company type | Public (NASDAQ:FB) |
| IPO date | 18 May 2012 |
| WhatsApp MAUs, millions | |
| Apr-13 | 200 |
| Jun-13 | 250 |
| Aug-13 | 300 |
| Oct-13 | 350 |
| Dec-13 | 400 |
| Jan-14 | 430 |
| Feb-14 | 465 |
| Apr-14 | 500 |
| Aug-14 | 600 |
| Jan-15 | 700 |
| Apr-15 | 800 |
| Sep-15 | 900 |
| Feb-16 | 1000 |
| Jan-17 | 1200 |
| Jul-17 | 1300 |
| Dec-17 | 1500 |
| Feb-20 | 2000 |