With social media-oriented apps, you’re likely to draw a big crowd, especially when you’ve got a group of people that have a lot to talk about. The Facebook-owned WhatsApp service recently registered such an audience, as CEO and founder Jan Koum has revealed that the app has reached 600 million monthly active users.
“Now serving 600,000,000 monthly active users,” said Koum in a tweet. “Yes, active and registered are very different types of numbers…”
That’s a huge increase for WhatsApp in just a short amount of time, as it just cleared 500 million users back in April, meaning that it’s really picked up over the summer months. Meanwhile, Tencent’s WeChat app is in second place on the social front with 438 million active users, most of which are based within China.
As far as Koum’s “registered” comment, it seems like a slight jab at Line and Kik, who revealed their numbers as well, but only as registered users, instead of active.
Facebook invested $19 billion in the app, so it appears to be taking off. However, it’s worth noting that its services are running a little behind compared to the likes of Tencent, as that service actually offers a number of regards based around its gaming services. We’ll have to see if WhatsApp will go through similar changes as the audience continues to increase.
There’s no question that the social application game is picking up. Along with power players like Twitter and Facebook still going strong, Line is doing admirably with larger revenues than Twitter, and smaller companies like Viber and Tango are doing quite well, registering 100 million and 70 million users, respectively.
What do you think Is WhatsApp due for some changes with the discovery of a growing audience, or do you think the social application should retain a “business as usual” approach when it comes to letting its users talks amongst themselves
Source: The Next Web
