WhatsApp Statistics

20+ WhatsApp Statistics and Facts to Make You Check Your DMs

WhatsApp is one of the most popular communication apps today. Whether you use it for business or merely for pleasure, you can’t deny the obvious quality of service this app provides. Yet, how much do you really know about WhatsApp? These WhatsApp statistics and facts will introduce you to the app in more detail and provide you with better insight you always wish you had. 

So, keep on reading if you want to find out all there is to know about the green app!

Top 10 Must-Know WhatsApp Statistics & Facts

  • WhatsApp is currently Facebook’s biggest asset.
  • Jan Koum, one of the founders of WhatsApp, was worth a staggering $9.5 billion in 2017.
  • Since Q3 2016, 58% of active users have used WhatsApp several times a day.
  • The number of monthly active users earned it the title of “most popular global messenger.”
  • 26- to 35-year-olds make up the largest demographic of WhatsApp users in the States with 18%.
  • If we look at annual household income, most WhatsApp users make over $100,000 — 37%, to be exact.
  • When it comes to Business or Business API WhatsApp, company size matters. 
  • The name of the app is actually a pun of the phrase “what’s up.”
  • A particular WhatsApp exploit had the power to destroy the entire group’s chat history and crash the app.
  • Facebook announced that they were working on their own cryptocurrency with WhatsApp as the payment system.

WhatsApp Company History — The Numbers

1. WhatsApp is currently Facebook’s biggest asset.

(Recode) (Sprout Social)

Not counting itself, WhatsApp is one of Facebook’s largest assets with 2 billion monthly active users. Ironically, Facebook’s own messaging app, Messenger, plays second fiddle with “just” 1.3 billion monthly active users. Instagram, on the other hand, is their smallest asset comprising merely 1 billion monthly active users.

2. WhatsApp made $15.29 million in revenue during the first half of 2014.

(Statista)

Also, this marked a significant increase from the previous two years. Namely, the total WhatsApp revenue for 2013 and 2012 amounted to $10.21 and $3.82 million, respectively.

3. On the other hand, WhatsApp experienced a net loss of $232.52 million that same year (2014).

(Statista)

In fact, net losses largely outweighed the revenue that year. This trend was also not an isolated incident. In both 2013 and 2012, the brand had net losses of $138.15 million and $54.67 million, respectively. 

Furthermore, the WhatsApp annual revenue stayed largely the same until Facebook showed up and bought the app. 

4. Jan Koum, one of the founders of WhatsApp, was worth a staggering $9.5 billion in 2017.

(Business Insider) (Forbes)

Yet, he was not always so successful (nor lucky). Truly a “rags to riches story,” Jan grew up in Soviet-era Ukraine in a house without any running water. However, his luck turned once Facebook bought the app in 2014 for a mind-blowing $22 billion.

5. Brian Acton is worth “only” $2.5 billion dollars.

(Forbes)

What company owns WhatsApp today? Facebook. But before that, founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton were earning their fair share. After selling his Facebook shares back in 2017, Acton had $3 billion to his name. Despite this sum being a lot lower than that of his co-founding partner, Koum, it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Moreover, Acton (along with his wife Tegan) donated over $1 billion to various charities, founding three new entities in the process as well.

WhatsApp Users By Country, Age and Income

6. Since Q3 2016, 58% of active users have used WhatsApp several times a day.

(Statista) (Statista)

This app is not only popular but invaluable, judging by the rate of its use. Also, note that since March 2020, WhatsApp has around 2 billion monthly active users, meaning more than a billion people use this app multiple times throughout the day.

(Statista)

As of October 2019, WhatsApp managed to beat Facebook Messenger and claim the title of “most popular global messenger.” 

Likewise, the Chinese WeChat app (1.3 billion users) offers a decent alternative for the budding Asian market.

8. More WhatsApp Statistics from 2019: the app was downloaded 2.75 million times from the Apple Store in the US.

(Statista)

In addition, 2.29 million people downloaded the app in Brazil the same year, while another 1.67 million did so in India. Mexico had 1.56 million downloads, Russia had 1.52 million, and the UK had 1.32 million.

9. 81.9% of 15- to 25-year-olds use WhatsApp in Latin America.

(Statista)

If we look at WhatsApp usage statistics by country, Latin America has one of the youngest demographics with almost 82% of its young adult population using this app. The 26–40 age group takes second place with 77%, whereas people aged 41–60 (57.2%) and 61+ (26.2%) take third and fourth place, respectively.

10. 26- to 35-year-olds make up the largest demographic of WhatsApp users in the States with 18%.

(Statista)

Likewise, 15- to 25-year-olds make up 12% of all US WhatsApp users in 2019; 36- to 45-year-olds (surprisingly) make up 16%, thus taking second place; the 46–55 age group makes 13%; and the 56+ age group makes merely 7% of the US population.

11. 26% of people living in urban parts of the US use the app.

(Statista)

On the other hand, merely 14% of their rural counterparts do the same. Hence, it would seem that urban areas are, in fact, hubs of WhatsApp activity.

12. WhatsApp number of users (total internet users) who use the app equals 25%.

(Statista)

Of this, 13% were male and 12% were female users. Meaning, app usage is split almost evenly amongst the genders; this data is just for the US.

13. If we look at annual household income, most WhatsApp users make over $100,000 — 37%, to be exact.

(Statista)

The number of WhatsApp users is much higher among the wealthier citizenry. Namely, merely 19% of those with an annual income of under $30,000 use the app. In addition, 31% of those making $80,000 to $100,000, and 28% of those with earnings between $70,000 and $80,000 use the app, taking second and third place, respectively.

Not So Well-Known WhatsApp Facts

14. You can use WhatsApp Business or WhatsApp Business API, depending on how big your business is.

(Falcon)

The difference between these two apps is that WhatsApp Business is more suitable for small businesses, whereas WhatsApp Business API is better for enterprises and larger brands. You can easily reach customers on WhatsApp Business and improve customer service.

Also, WhatsApp Business API allows you to send notifications and updates to more customers. For example, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines used this to full effect as they were able to keep a large number of passengers up-to-date with flight information.

Both apps allow you to access your WhatsApp business statistics and gain more insight into your marketing campaign.

15. The name of the app is actually a pun of the phrase “what’s up.”

(WhatsApp.com)

You’ve probably guessed this one yourself, but it’s an interesting piece of trivia nonetheless. What’s more, it was even confirmed on WhatsApp’s official “About Us” page recently.

16. WhatsApp lets you add up to 256 people to one group chat.

(HootSuite)

This is but one of many reasons businesses were attracted to WhatsApp so much. Broadcast lists being yet another — you get to send a message to every phone number you have saved. Once the person opens the message, it’ll show up as private chat rather than group chat.

17. The WhatsApp market share exceeds that of any other messaging app on the planet.

(Statista)

As previously mentioned, WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users, thus making it the most used messaging app on the planet, according to recent WhatsApp statistics! 

Facebook’s Messenger and WeChat take second and third place with 1.3 billion and 1.165 billion, respectively, whereas honorable mentions include QQ mobile (731 million), Telegram (400 million), and Snapchat (398 million).

18. In 2018, WhatsApp started charging a fee for businesses that reply later than 24h.

(Tech Church)

Finally, WhatsApp started making money directly from the app. If businesses are slow and it takes them more than 24h to respond, they get penalized and have to pay a fixed rate per message sent, by country.

19. WhatsApp Statistics for 2020 will be very exciting: new features are coming.

(Deccan Herald)

Selling WhatsApp to Facebook could mean only one thing — more features, and plenty of them! And lo and behold, they just announced they’d be bringing new features to Android, iOS, and KaiOS powered devices. The new additions include animated stickers and QR codes. The first update aims to make the conversation more fun, whereas the second one eliminates the need to manually type in numbers when you want to add a new contact.

20. Australia is using WhatsApp to keep people updated about the ongoing pandemic.

(Australian Government Department of Health)

Companies aren’t the only ones taking advantage of WhatsApp channels. Aussie WhatsApp users in 2020 can easily receive verified information about the ongoing pandemic and stay up-to-date with the latest news and measures their government has implemented to battle the notorious virus.

21. A particular WhatsApp exploit had the power to destroy the entire group’s chat history and crash the app.

(Independent)

In fact, the exploit was so powerful that after the crash, people could no longer use their WhatsApp at all and were forced to reinstall the app. What’s more, the group’s chat history would’ve been completely wiped out for all participants, making this exploit not only irritating but dangerous as well if it fell into the wrong hands.

22. More WhatsApp statistics and app trivia: 2 million users experienced a crash on July 15th, 2020.

(Republic World)

Due to its popularity around the globe, WhatsApp took a real blow when users from places like Egypt, the Netherlands, Germany, Kazakhstan, New Delhi, New York, Columbia, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, and Romania couldn’t connect. Namely, 58% of users experienced connectivity issues, while 38% couldn’t receive or send messages; 3% couldn’t even log in to WhatsApp.

23. Facebook announced that they are working on their own cryptocurrency with WhatsApp as the payment system.

(NewsBytes)

Apart from this, you can already transfer Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin through WhatsApp via an automated bot.

FAQs

How do I check my WhatsApp stats?

(WhatsApp.com)

If you use WhatsApp for business, you can easily check your statistics to see just how much your audience is engaged and what their experience is like. By checking your stats, you gain an insight into how many messages were delivered, read, received, and sent.

All you have to do is open your WhatsApp Business, go to “more options,” select “business tools,” then go to “more options” again, and enter your stats.

How many messages have I sent on WhatsApp?

(The Sun)

If you don’t use WhatsApp for business, you can still check exactly how many messages you’ve sent via the app. All you have to do is go to the Settings tab and open the “Data and Storage Usage” panel. Go to “Storage Usage” and you’ll get a list of people you’ve been texting with.

Those at the top of the list are those you’ve texted the most. You can click on each name on the list and see exactly how many messages you’ve sent them.

Which country has the most WhatsApp users?

(Statista)

According to data from 2019, India had 340 million WhatsApp users, earning it the title of the country with the most users. Brazil took second place with 99 million, which makes India’s numbers that much more impressive.

The US climbed to third place with 68.1 million. This might be surprising given how popular the app seems to be in the States.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these WhatsApp statistics and facts made you more familiar with the app you love and use every day. If you haven’t used this messaging app before, perhaps the article has shown you just how beneficial it is.

In any case, whether you aim to reach distant friends and relatives or you think the app makes a perfect messenger platform for work, now you know how it all works and what makes the app so popular.

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As a student of English literature, Nikolina has always been passionate about reading and writing. Whether it’s for work or pleasure, she finds she best organizes her thoughts on paper. This is evident in her poetry and short stories, but also in the articles she writes professionally. As someone with a lot to say and a strong opinion on almost any topic, you could say this was her dream job.

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