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Communications Facebook Social Networks

WhatsApp Now Has More Monthly Active Users Than Facebook App (venturebeat.com) 65

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Facebook's $19 billion bet on WhatsApp in 2014, when the messaging app had 450 million active users, is beginning to pay off. From a report: In recent months, WhatsApp has surpassed Facebook's own marquee app in popularity, according to industry estimates. In September of last year, WhatsApp for the first time had more monthly active users worldwide on Android and iPhone platforms than the Facebook app, research firm App Annie said today in its annual State of Mobile report. App Annie did not share specific figures but told VentureBeat that WhatsApp has maintained its lead over the Facebook app since September.
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WhatsApp Now Has More Monthly Active Users Than Facebook App More

WhatsApp Now Has More Monthly Active Users Than Facebook App

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  • App Annie did not share specific figures but told VentureBeat that WhatsApp has maintained its lead over the Facebook app since September.

    ie. People are deleting the Facebook app in droves but not the Whatsapp app (sic).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Assuming the Facebook app can even be deleted, depending on the phone.

    • People are deleting the Facebook app in droves but not the Whatsapp app (sic).

      And in fact WhatsApp is still rising in popularity, which was the entire point behind buying it (and Instagram) back then.

      Zuckerberg has seen predecessors coming and going (thing MySpace's fall from popularity).

      That eventually Facebook will wane out was absolutely totally predictable, it wasn't a question of "if" but "when".

      So of course, Zuckerberg paid extremely close attention to emerging *future competitor* (instead of contemporary competitors), and bought them to be ready for the "Post-Facebook" era.
      Wha

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jrumney ( 197329 )
        Considering that WhatsApp has fallen way behind its competitors in features since Facebook purchased it, I'd be surprised if it was still in a growth phase. Asian competitors like LINE and WeChat have economic ecosystems behind them now that make them profitable as well as pulling in new customers. WhatsApp on the other hand is restrained from doing anything that might compete with the parent company's main app, so they are sticking at basic messaging that pretends to be secure and private while siphoning

    • "ie. People are deleting the Facebook app in droves but not the Whatsapp app (sic)."

      Indeed. It's nice because it's widely used.

      But once I have get their first Ad via Whatsapp, I'll be gone.

  • I'm one such person (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    No Facebook in years but I occasionally use Whatsapp to communicate with colleagues, usually in groups and international colleagues. I noticed WhatsApp is quite popular in some geographies.

    Also, sInce the only reason to buy an iPhone is to use Messages and FaceTime, WhatsApp can be a way to wean oneself away from Apple.

    Of course, I don't share my contacts with WhatsApp and I try to touch it only with a proverbial 10 foot pole in general, especially because it's owned by Facebook..

  • I don't know about you but most people are totally cool with adding me on Facebook as opposed to giving me their phone number... whatsapp is highly primitive, doesn't do anything I couldn't do with ICQ 20 years ago. I seriously don't get wtf is wrong with these people creating new IM programs all the time.

    • Re:Why is it so popular? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Wednesday January 16, 2019 @11:43AM (#57972262) Homepage

      It doesn't need more features than ICQ to be useful, it just has to be widely available, free, and easy to use.

      Whatsapp grew because it did the same thing as SMS but for free (around here you paid per-SMS so this was a massive deal to a lot of people).

    • For me, Whatsapp replaces phone calls, SMSes, and video calls. If I have either wifi or sufficient cellular data, it is completely free (unlike phone calls or SMSes for many people). It lets me see my messages on the computer (unlike SMSes). It easily exports the conversations/messages from the app to your computer (unlike Facebook). It doesn't seem to steal your data or advertise to you (unlike Facebook). And best of all, it is based on phone numbers and nearly everyone has it (unlike ICQ). It is pretty mu

      • It lets me see my messages on the computer (unlike SMSes).

        But it sucks and still rely on your phone to send and receive. Why?

        It easily exports the conversations/messages from the app to your computer (unlike Facebook)

        On the contrary, Facebook does it right. You can shut down your phone and still continue your conversation on your PC.

        And best of all, it is based on phone numbers

        This is one of the major reason for NOT using whatsapp. Phone numbers suck as an identifier. They are usually not free, belong to the carrier, and are location-specific.
        Why should a chat application require a cell phone number is beyond me.

        • And worse of all, it doesn't even work on two phones at the same time. Last time I checked at least.
          Who are the idiots who wrote that application?

        • But it sucks and still rely on your phone to send and receive. Why?

          My phone is always on, so why not?

          On the contrary, Facebook does it right. You can shut down your phone and still continue your conversation on your PC.

          But Facebook does so many other things wrong... and since my phone is always on, I don't care about this "disadvantage".

          Phone numbers suck as an identifier. They are usually not free, belong to the carrier, and are location-specific.
          Why should a chat application require a cell phone number is beyond me.

          But pretty much everyone has a phone number. Certainly I do. Most businesses will give you a phone number, and once they do, it's easier to contact them by WhatsApp than by regular phone/SMS. BTW, when I fly internationally and no longer have phone service, WhatsApp on my phone still works perfectly (as long as I have data from wifi, of course). It lets me

          • But it sucks and still rely on your phone to send and receive. Why?

            My phone is always on, so why not?

            You are right, why make it good when you can make it suck?
            My toaster is also always connected to the grid, so why not relay whatsapp messages through it? What could possibly goes wrong?

            On the contrary, Facebook does it right. You can shut down your phone and still continue your conversation on your PC.

            But Facebook does so many other things wrong... and since my phone is always on, I don't care about this "disadvantage".

            Facebook is just one of many that does that right. There are dozens of chat services NOT requiring you to have a phone and especially not powered on and with signal (cell data or wifi) to use. Why use one of the only one that suck that much?

            Phone numbers suck as an identifier. They are usually not free, belong to the carrier, and are location-specific.
            Why should a chat application require a cell phone number is beyond me.

            But pretty much everyone has a phone number. Certainly I do.

            Not everyone has a phone number which can receive SMS to activate whatsapp. Some peopl

    • I don't know about you but most people are totally cool with adding me on Facebook as opposed to giving me their phone number... whatsapp is highly primitive, doesn't do anything I couldn't do with ICQ 20 years ago. I seriously don't get wtf is wrong with these people creating new IM programs all the time.

      I have a group of friends in another part of the US. They invited me to a WhatsApp group about 4 years ago. I downloaded it and immediately liked it. Here is what it offers for me over my normal texting app:
      - supports long messages
      - built-in ability to record audio clips
      - supports large images
      - supports large videos... I've gotten 30+MB videos from friends.
      - ability to send location/audio/video/other files (e.g. txt, pdf, etc). I once sent a 30 MB PDF to a friend via WA. Can't even email that!
      - group c

      • The serious downside I see is that it is now owned by FB, which I don't use or want to use. But I like WA so much I don't want to drop it.

        Your could explore Telegram [telegram.org], which has all the features you mention (with bigger metrics), and more.

      • - WA web - it is really nice to pull up WA on my computer and use it there.

        I just tried to use it and it ask me to to scan a bar code on my phone. Who's the idiot who designed that?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gosand ( 234100 )

          Your phone has to be on the wifi network that your pc is on... you open up WA, choose Web from the menu, and it turns on the camera and you scan it. Boom, you are signed in, with all of your chats and history. It's pretty slick.

          • it's very dumb you mean. They've never though of giving the option to login with a username or password? What if I don't want/have a cell phone, or if it is discharged?

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by gosand ( 234100 )

              it's very dumb you mean. They've never though of giving the option to login with a username or password? What if I don't want/have a cell phone, or if it is discharged?

              Wow, seriously? It's a mobile app. If you don't have a phone then you aren't really their target market.
              Can you use FB on your computer if it isn't plugged in? What about if you don't have internet access, how are you supposed to use it then?

              • It's not only a mobile app. It's also a web app that I should be able to use on my PC. Somehow, they designed it so that you can't use it on the PC without a phone.

                • Re: (Score:3)

                  by gosand ( 234100 )

                  You should probably send WhatsApp a tersely worded email expressing your outrage.

                  • or you know, I'll just not use whatsapp. It's not as it if had any feature not present in other chat clients.

      • What's the difference with Messenger then?!?

  • Whatsapp still has no ads (as far as I can tell), and its messages are encrypted (so no data mining). So it appears Facebook isn't making money off of it. So in what sense is the $19 billion investment "paying off"?

    • Facebook doesn't know the message contents but I doubt they care about that.

      The important thing is WHO you message, and how often.

      eg. Just yesterday I whatsapped a guy I haven't contacted for a year or so and an hour later a whole bunch of his posts appeared on Facebook. Coincidence? Nope.

      Also: A large part of that $19 billion was just to keep Whatsapp out of the hands of Google/Microsoft.

    • "messages are encrypted"

      You don't know that. The source is closed and it all goes through their servers.

      • The same could be said of your Gmail account, your Android or Apple phone, your Windows computer, and so on. None of which even claim that the company can't read your stuff. And nobody has disproven Whatsapp's claim, as far as I know.

        So while it is inferior in terms of privacy to an open source computer you have built the software stack for yourself, it's superior to pretty much anything else.

    • They're making money off of your every action on their platform. If you seriously think that there's a very large group of servers running world-wide, dedicated to serving you and your loved ones, all for free - you're sadly mistaken, my friend. 'You and your interactions with others' is their product. Your gains in this system are made by the illusion of interacting with your loved ones in a way that's meaningful to you and them. Their model to predict your future actions is second to none, because no

  • These messenger apps, have been doing the same thing for the past 20+ years?
    I never really see a reason to switch other then the fact the people who I want to chat with are on an other service?
    I remember doing ICQ, to AOL Instant Messenger, Then to Facebook messenger. Over the decades I havn't really seen any killer feature in them. The biggest features I have seen was Group Chats, and image and video attachments.
    They all seem to want to give us Ads, an or collect my data, and have to go via some sort of c

  • Everybody in Africa uses it to make free phone calls!

  • Seriously, it's not because WA is any good, it's because FB is so bad and only old people use it anymore.

  • Would be fun to watch FB die separately of WhatsUp and Instagram if they FB will get split. Though it won't be, as WeChat is not going anywhere...
  • Facebook owns WhatsApp, so what's the fucking difference? You think they keep your data isolated? If you use WhatsApp, you are a Facebook user as well, or might as well be, and your data goes to the same places.

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