Messaging application WhatsApp is being used by one billion people, the company behind it has said.
The California-based firm announced the milestone just six years after it was founded by ex-Yahoo! employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum.
The app's popularity has stemmed from itsallowing groups of people to stay in touch simultaneously without having to enter contact details.As well as text messages, users can also share photos, videos and other media.
It also offers a similar secure messaging service to the BlackBerry and has become more popular as the Canadian phone maker has seen its handsets fall in popularity compared to those made by other smart phone makers.
It has also proved popular in the US where mobile phone customers often have to payfor text messages.More than half of its subscribers have been added in the last 21 months, according to Forbes.
A message on the app's blog section said:"One billion people are using WhatsApp. That's nearly one in seven people on Earth."We are proud of this milestone, and we're humbled by the extraordinary ways all of you have used WhatsApp.
"WhatsApp began as a simple idea: ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standingin the way."
So even as we celebrate this achievement, our focus remains the same."Every day, our team continues to work to improve WhatsApp's speed, reliability, security and simplicity.
We're excited to see how far we've come. But now, it's backto work – because we still have another 6 billion people to get on WhatsApp."WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in February 2014 for $19bn (£12bn).
It is popular in India, which has the largest number of users for a country, but faces competition in Asia from other messaging services like WeChat and Viber.
The app has proved controversial in some countries where fears remain over secure messaging, withBrazil trying but failing to ban the service in December 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please share your thoughts by clicking on POST A COMMENT link or posting in FACEBOOK COMMENT BOX above:
DISCLAIMER:
Opinions expressed in comments are strictly those of the comment writers alone and does not reflect or represent the views of PoliFocus.
Calling the CONTACTS on the comments is at your own risk, PoliFocus is not liable for any SCAM that may arise in the course of that.