WhatsApp has been one of the most popular cross-platform instant messaging clients in recent times. It can be used to send text messages, images, video, user location and audio media messages to other people who have the software installed on their phones.
Just in past year, Mark Zuckerberg owned Facebook acquired WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. A recent announcement from Facebook stated that that WhatsApp has currently surpassed the one billion users mark. This is quite a feat for the WhatsApp which is now one of the most used communication apps in the world.
Even Facebook Messenger is no match for WhatsApp in terms of active users per month. Facebook Messenger reportedly records around 800 million active users on a monthly basis. The user base of WhatsApp has been on a constant rise since it was acquired by Facebook.
In a post, the WhatsApp team stated that the ways in which WhatsApp is being used by people is changing with time. Gone are the days when the only purpose that the app served was person-to-person messaging.
WhatsApp team revealed that people are now using WhatsApp for various purposes that include promotion of business and also for sharing and spreading important information during moments of crisis like health emergencies and natural disasters. People are also using WhatsApp to find themselves the perfect date or even purchase an engagement ring.
WhatsApp was previously charging a yearly fee of $0.99 to its users. However, the fee was recently completely removed and WhatsApp became free for a lifetime for all its users.
The reason behind this scrapping of the fee could be accounted to the fact that users had to make the payment using a debit or a credit card. However, it was seen that a number of users did not possess either of the cards and thus it became really difficult for WhatsApp to collect the subscription fee.
The company is reportedly trying to find other ways in which it can generate some amount of revenue from its users. Just in the previous month, the company stated that WhatsApp is trying to develop some tools that would allow users to communicate with banks, airlines, and other organizations.
WhatsApp explained that this would mean that users will be able to use the app to get necessary information from banks about certain transactions or they may be able to communicate with airlines companies and obtain information about flight delays and other things.
Another communication service that recently hit the one billion users mark is Gmail. The announcement came from Sundar Pichai, the chief executive at Google.
Coming back to the matter of WhatsApp, its growing user base seems to be posing a serious threat to Twitter. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter himself stated that a lot of Twitter conversations are being replaced by WhatsApp in recent times.
Apparently, people are finding WhatsApp much safer and easier to use compared to Twitter. In data obtained by Business Insider, it can be clearly seen that the number of Tweets per day is sporting a downward trend with time.
While this is definitely bad news for Twitter, it is surely a great opportunity for WhatsApp to further expand its user base by introducing new aspects to the app that are found in Twitter.
The scrapping of the annual subscription fee is another major reason behind the surge in a number of WhatsApp users in recent times. People who abstained from using the communication service in past, because of the yearly charges, are now coming forward and becoming active users of WhatsApp.
Simply stated, WhatsApp is on a roll and it does not look like its popularity among users is going to cease anytime soon. However, some bad news for WhatsApp users came in the form of a new scam that recently hit the communication client.