WhatsApp reaches 400 million monthly users

Messaging service WhatsApp hit a major milestone Thursday, when it reached 400 million monthly active users. The statistic towers over any other mobile messaging service's accomplishment recorded so far. 

 

A hundred million active users were added in the last four months alone, the company announced.

 

“This isn’t a count of people who just registered for WhatsApp – it’s the number of people who are actively using the service every single month,” said co-founder of the cross-platform messaging service Jan Koum in the WhatsApp blog post.

 

LINE, another messaging service with more dominance in Asia, announced in November that they hit 300 million registered users this year. 

 

This was considered a huge leap, given that LINE reached its first 100 million users after only a span of 19 months. 

 

However, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum took a “seriously cranky tone” in the blog post, talking about “annoying” ways to monetize applications.

 

“We bet that if our team of engineers could make messaging fast, simple, and personal, we could charge people directly for the service without having to rely on annoying banner ads, game promotions, or all those other distracting 'features' that come with many messaging apps,” Koum said.

 

“WhatsApp has just 50 employees,”Koum continued. “And most of us are engineers. We’ve arrived at this point without spending a dollar on targeted ads or big marketing campaigns. We’re here because of all the people who share their WhatsApp stories with co-workers, friends, and loved ones – stories we love to hear.”

 

LINE reportedly had breakthrough success in Japan, Spain, and India using expensive TV campaigns. A separate report said that LINE is expected to be a US$30 billion IPO in Tokyo in 2014. Its annual revenue from messaging app games and stickers may hit US$1 billion in the same year.

Meanwhile, Kik recently hit 100 million registered users and has started amassing 1 million downloads to new games it promotes in less than one day, the report said.

 

WhatsApp can be downloaded for free in the first year, but users pay a $0.99 annual fee starting their second year of use. It is currently available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Windows Phone. — Kim Luces / KDM, GMA News