WhatsApp hits 1B users

Mobile messaging app WhatsApp today hit one billion ‘monthly active users’, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced.

A post on the WhatsApp blog states: As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp.

That’s nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family.

We are proud of this milestone, and we’re humbled by the extraordinary ways all of you have used WhatsApp. Whether it’s sharing vital information during natural disasters or health emergencies, finding a date, growing a small business, buying an engagement ring, or seeking a better life – we’re honored to be a small part of what people are doing to make their lives and the lives of those around them better.

And yet, through all the progress we’ve made together over the last seven years, our mission has never changed. WhatsApp began as a simple idea: ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standing in the way.

So even as we celebrate this achievement, our focus remains the same. Every day, our team continues to work to improve WhatsApp’s speed, reliability, security and simplicity. We’re excited to see how far we’ve come. But now, it’s back to work – because we still have another 6 billion people to get on WhatsApp, and a long way left to go.

WhatsApp co-founder and CEO, Jan Koum, said he “couldn’t be more proud of our small team doing so much in just seven years.”

He also shared figures revealing that the app supports 53 languages, with 1.6 billion images and 250 million videos shared on it everyday.

Staff writer