According to tweet from the company's cofounder, Jan Koum, WhatsApp reached 600mn MAUs, which accounted for y/y
growth of approximately 100%. Given Facebook?s 200 million monthly actives on Messenger in 2Q, and assuming a likely conservative 50% overlap between Messenger and WhatsApp, MAUs for the combined Facebook Messaging service could be approximately 700mn active users ? approximately 60% higher than the closest competitor WeChat, and likely more geographically diverse
This may be surprising for some US-based investors as shown by recent data from Parks Associates that shows WhatsApp as only the seventh most popular messaging app amongst US messaging app users. However, over the last five months WhatsApp remains among the top four most downloaded apps globally.
With Facebook Messenger?s presence in the US and WhatsApp presence internationally, Facebook has clearly become the preeminent global player within the messaging services space.
