WhatsApp hits 900 million users

Messaging app Whatsapp has hit 900 million monthly active users, according to chief executive and founder Jan Koum.

That means WhatsApp added 100 million users in the past six months, after announcing crossing the 800 million mark in April of this year. Thursday’s milestone also means that WhatsApp has seen a 50% increase since August of 2014, when it hit 600 million users

At this pace, WhatsApp should reach one billion by the start of 2016. It took four months to move from 800 to 900 million, with 50 percent growth in the past year.

WhatsApp remains the largest messaging service in the world. Facebook Messenger has 700 million users, WeChat just passed 600 million, and LINE reached 400 million earlier this year.

That said, WhatsApp is the least valuable of the four messaging services for advertisers and developers. Unlike the other three, WhatsApp offers no plug-in for developers to create over-the-top apps, and no advertising space.

WhatsApp, for instance, in January announced that its service is being utilised to send over 30 billion messages a day, surpassing the estimated 20 billion SMS texts that are sent every day. The voice calling feature is gaining traction too. It will be interesting to see what other features these clients introduce in the coming years.

Founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo employees Brian Acton and Jan Koum, WhatsApp's messaging client is free to use for the first year, and charges a nominal $0.99 (roughly Rs. 55) for every year afterwards.