Here are some incredible facts about WhatsApp (Infographic)

WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, loved by many people due to its focus on the core experience, eschewing complexity and ‘frivolous’ features like games and stickers.

In the UK, it consistently features amongst the most downloaded apps, and even though it was acquired by Facebook for $22 billion in 2015, it still seems to operate independently, which can only be a good thing.

With more than 800 million active users (as of January 2015), that’s an incredible 1 in 9 people on the planet using the app frequently, so they must be doing something right…

Mobile Industry Review has come across some insightful facts and figures about the astounding phenomenon that is WhatsApp, courtesy of Parampreet Chanana from ShopOnLess.com.

We have highlighted some of the information below, though you can of course read the original article here.

Key facts about WhatsApp

Here are some of the more interesting facts, as well as a few more that might raise an eyebrow or two:-

1. As of April 2015, WhatsApp has more than 800 million active users.
2. India has the largest number of active users on WhatsApp.
3. More than 1 million users get registered on WhatsApp daily.
4. As of January 2015, 30 billion messages gets sent and received on WhatsApp daily.
5. Average amount of time spent by users on WhatsApp at a weekly basis is 195 minutes.
6. Before Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, Google offered to pay $ 10 billion.
7. WhatsApp is responsible for 27% of selfies shared on social media.
8. WhatsApp founder Jan Koum was denied a job at Facebook in 2008.
9. WhatsApp messaging volume overtook the world SMS volume long time back.
10. WhatsApp has a total of 55 employees. Out of which only 34 are engineers. That means there is a ration of 1 developer to 23 million active users
11. The average user checks the app approximately 23 times per day.
12. An average user ends more than 1000 messages per month on WhatsApp.
13. As of early 2014, an average user shares about 40 pictures, 7 videos and 13 voice notes per month on WhatsApp. You can only imagine what the number would be now.
14. WhatsApp is worth more than entire annual budget of NASA, which is $17 billion.
15. As of February 2015, WhatsApp is at 6th position in the list of global brands which rank highest in consumer engagement

The giant WhatsApp infographic

Besides the facts and figures listed above, the folks at ShopOnLess have created a giant-sized infographic that sums it all up in visual terms.

So without further ado, here it is:-

Final words

Despite WhatsApp’s popularity, it’s currently only the 6th fastest growing social and messaging app, behind Line, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram and Pinterest:

There’s clearly more potential for WhatsApp to grow, particularly in Asia where competitors such as Line are currently more popular, especially in countries like Japan (Line’s native country) and Thailand (where it’s the number one messaging app).

It will be interesting to see how it manages to stimulate more growth, whether that’s by adding new features (such as its voice calling feature, which will soon be available for Windows Phone users in addition to Android and iOS which were already supported), or by targeting developing markets more effectively.

In the meantime, let us know which chat/messaging app is your favourite, and why…