For over 2 billion people around the world, WhatsApp is the communication app they prefer to use to contact family, friends, and even businesses. Meanwhile, marketers, business owners, and organizations use it to keep in touch with their teams and connect with their customers/clients. It’s truly a universally useful app, and the fact that it’s free to use makes it even more accessible.
You may think that WhatsApp’s enduring popularity is remarkable if you know anything about the app’s controversial Privacy Policy. But if we take a look at WhatsApp statistics for users & usage, demographics, advertising & revenue, and security, we can understand why it continues to dominate its market and remains the top communication app of choice for individuals and professionals everywhere.
Next, let’s examine Facebook Statistics and usage statistics, to see how many people are using the app and how often.
First, though, where did this sensational and successful app come from? And what are its capabilities?
WhatsApp (the name of which is a play on the phrase, “What’s up?”) was launched in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. Initially, it was conceived as an app that would show the statuses of the people in your phone’s Contacts list. For example, it would show if someone was working or at home. Later, the founders added instant messaging, which became WhatsApp’s primary feature; because of this, though, they also had to launch a paid subscription to help cover the costs of sending texts.
After Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, a voice calling feature was added; the subscription fee was eliminated, allowing users to access the app for free; and third-party advertisements were also removed. More recently, in 2023, users gained the capability to broadcast messages to large groups of their fans or followers via WhatsApp Channels, as well as to send video messages up to 60 seconds in length.
In 2021, WhatsApp sparked controversy with their announcement that anyone who didn’t accept their new Privacy Policy would gradually lose access to the app’s basic features. Due to the universal backlash against this move, WhatsApp rolled back their stance on limiting usage. But the whole situation also highlighted some of the less popular parts of their Privacy Policy, including the fact that WhatsApp shares user metadata with Facebook.
Today, WhatsApp is one of many apps owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. Its headquarters is in Menlo Park, CA.
We’ll dive headfirst into WhatsApp stats across a variety of important categories in just a moment. But first, check out these key facts and statistics!
WhatsApp is used by over 2 billion people spread out across 180 countries. For a time, the app was only accessible if you paid a small subscription fee. But in 2024, it is 100% free. It is also considered one of the simplest to use as well as one of the more reliable messaging apps on the market.
Despite a highly controversial and unpopular update to its Privacy Policy in January 2021, WhatsApp still has a strong daily active user (DAU) growth rate.
The web version of WhatsApp ranks 21st in the global ranking of all websites based on their traffic numbers.
After multiple acquisition attempts by Google, WhatsApp was finally acquired by Facebook in February 2014. The social media network paid $19.3 billion USD.
Even though it’s one of the most downloaded messaging apps in the world, one region it’s not being used in is China. According to security researchers, WhatsApp has been totally blocked in that country as of September 2017. It follows another Meta-owned app, Facebook, which the Chinese government blocked in 2009.
Now let’s move on to discuss stats about the number of people using WhatsApp,
when and for how long they’re accessing it in a day, the usage rate in different age groups, and more.
By 2024, the number of global unique active users on WhatsApp had risen to 2.78 billion. That’s a 12% increase compared to June 2022.
WhatsApp is extremely popular for business use in India. In June 2022, India ranked first as the county with the most WhatsApp Business downloads with 292 million downloads. Indonesia came in second place with 73 million downloads.
Furthermore, in January 2023, it was found that around 2 billion users were actually using WhatsApp month to month.
In May 2023, a survey of Brazilian WhatsApp users reported that 78% of respondents said they had received promotional messages from businesses that they had never reached out to before. That statistic could be reflective of a widespread problem among Brazil’s residents, especially considering that, as of Q3 2022, more than 93% of Brazilians who use the internet also use WhatsApp on a monthly basis.
WhatsApp’s global user base spends around 17 hours using the app on a monthly basis.
One survey from March 2023 said that 65% of the WhatsApp users in Spain get on the app multiple times daily. Furthermore, 30% said they get on it at least once a day.
The age group that uses WhatsApp the most is the 25-34-year-olds, who comprise 34.84% of the user base. They’re followed by 18-24-year-olds at 25.41%; 35-44-year-olds at 18.94%; 45-54-year-olds at 10.73%; 55-64-year-olds at 6.58%; and finally, 65-year-olds and older at 3.49%.
There are over 173 million user reviews for WhatsApp in the Google Play Store for Android devices.
As of October 2020, people on WhatsApp were sending over 100 billion messages every day.
To show how far WhatsApp reaches around the globe and among different gender groups, here are important WhatsApp statistics about the demographics of the platform’s user base.
In 2019, the number of WhatsApp users in the United States was 68.1 million. It’s projected to rise to 85.8 million by the end of 2023.
In Q3 2022, around 95% of people in Nigeria who were active on the internet also accessed WhatsApp month to month. Meanwhile, in Brazil, that percentage was 93.4%; in South Africa, 93.3%; and in the US, 27.3%. The lowest usage rate for WhatsApp was in Japan.
Indonesian WhatsApp users spend the most time, on average, using WhatsApp on a monthly basis at 29 hours per month. In Brazil, users spend around 28 hours on WhatsApp per month; in the US, 7.3 hours; and in Australia, less than six hours.
In Q4 2022, it was found that more than 53% of WhatsApp’s global user base were males. Meanwhile, 46.6% were women. As of the fourth quarter of 2022, over 53 percent of the WhatsApp user base was composed of men. By comparison, women on the platform constituted approximately 46.6 percent of the popular mobile app audience.
From 2021-2022, there was a 7% decrease in the number of hours per month that WhatsApp’s user base spent using the platform. By country, India had the highest decrease in usage at 11%, and France had the highest increase in usage by 2%.
WhatsApp is hugely popular among Brazilians. In 2022, around 99% of Brazilian people who also owned smartphones said they had WhatsApp installed.
WhatsApp is a significant news source for Indian users in 2023, according to one survey. Approximately 47% of the respondents to the survey, in fact, said that of all the social networks available, WhatsApp was their primary source of news.
This year, the Netherlands experienced a 6.4% growth in WhatsApp users from 2022. The WhatsApp user base for that country now numbers more than 13.3 million.
Given the fact that there are no third-party advertisements on WhatsApp, how does the platform use ads to generate revenue? It does so through the WhatsApp Business app, which advertisers can use to create ads that lead customers to their official WhatsApp chat from other Meta-owned apps, like Facebook or Instagram.
As you’ll soon see from these WhatsApp statistics about advertising and revenue, WhatsApp Business is a lucrative setup full of potential.
The estimated global revenue generated by WhatsApp Business in 2022 was more than $330 million USD.
The region in the world that generated the highest amount of revenue from WhatsApp Business in 2022 was the Asia-Pacific region, with $127 million. It was followed by Latin America with a revenue of $100 million USD.
WhatsApp has the largest penetration rate (almost 76%) in India’s population of internet users of all the social media networks.
Text promotions and advertisements are not entirely unwelcome among WhatsApp users, at least not those in Brazil. A May 2023 survey found that 53% of Brazilian WhatsApp users had no problem receiving ads through the app as long as they didn’t come very often.
For an app with such a vast user base that uses it to communicate privately with family members and friends, security should be a huge concern. See how WhatsApp holds up in that area with the
following statistics.
In February 2023, a survey of Indian WhatsApp users found that 73% of respondents had gotten spam or promotional messages trying to sell them financial services.
Meanwhile, another survey in India revealed that 60% of the people who responded noticed an uptick in “unsolicited commercial messages” that rose with their use of Meta-owned apps, including WhatsApp.
WhatsApp has huge potential for marketers, business owners, and influencers to reach their target consumer or fanbase. But it’s also important to note that this app comes with unique security concerns which you should take into consideration, especially if you’re thinking about making WhatsApp your primary mode of communication with your customers or clients.
Still, WhatsApp’s reach of more than 2 billion users is undeniably impressive, and it also doesn’t look like the user growth rate is slowing down dramatically any time soon. Based on the statistics above, it could well be worth investing time and money in this platform to promote and grow your brand!
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