40+ WhatsApp Statistics for 2025: Usage, Revenue & Growth
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WhatsApp, which started in 2009 as a chat service for iOS devices, is today among the most popular mobile apps of all time. With desktop and business versions, WhatsApp has become an indispensable part of our lives. It’s also a key marketing tool, and knowing its metrics, audiences, etc., is crucial for marketers. In this detailed guide, I’ve listed 40+ WhatsApp statistics you should be aware of. They cover its user base, revenue, and more.
Whatsapp stats (top picks)
As of June 2024, WhatsApp was estimated to have about 3 billion unique active users.
India ranked #1 in the number of times the WhatsApp app was downloaded from the Google Play Store.
WhatsApp Business was reported to have about 200 million monthly active users as of June 2023.
According to a report on CNBC, WhatsApp contributes about $1.5 billion a year to Meta’s total revenue.
WhatsApp is the second most favorite social media app for men and women after Facebook.
Overview of WhatsApp’s global user base
How big is WhatsApp’s global user base? The statistics in the two sections below tell you everything you need to know about its user base, WhatsApp demographics, and regional distribution.
Total number of WhatsApp users worldwide
Here are a few key insights about WhatsApp’s user base, how it has grown over the years, and where it’s projected to reach in the next few years.
Based on a piece on Meta’s website, WhatsApp connected 2 billion users worldwide as of February 2020.
However, according to a report on Statista, WhatsApp is estimated to have reached 3 billion unique active users as of June 2024, an increase of 7% compared to June 2023.
It is also the biggest communication channel for global smartphone users as of 2024. This is no surprise, considering its user base's growth since April 2013, when it had about 200 million monthly active users.
In fact, between June and August 2024, WhatsApp ranked fourth among all mobile apps in terms of its total monthly active users. It follows YouTube, Chrome Browser, and Google, which take the first three spots.
Sources: Meta, Statista, Statista, Data Reportal
User demographics and regional use
Which age groups use WhatsApp the most, and how are its users distributed globally? Here’s everything you need to know.
WhatsApp recently announced that it crossed 100 million active users in the United States alone.
How popular is WhatsApp on a global scale? It is incredibly popular across several mobile-first economies. These include Nigeria, for example, with a penetration of 95% of the digital population, 94% of the population in South Africa, and 93% of the population in Brazil as of the third quarter of 2023.
In terms of the number of times WhatsApp Messenger was downloaded from the Google Play Store in Q2 2024, India ranked first with 34 million downloads. Indonesia came second with roughly 11 million downloads, followed by Pakistan with roughly the same amount.
The US saw about 4 million downloads in the same period.
When you consider the share of adults in the US who have a WhatsApp account, the age group in first place is those between 18 and 34, at 31%. This is followed by those between 35 and 44, at 27%, and those between 45 and 64, at 20%.
Male users on WhatsApp make up 51.7% of the total number of users on WhatsApp.
Sources: WhatsApp, Statista, Statista, Statista, Data Reportal
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WhatsApp’s impact on communication trends
WhatsApp has played a major role in connecting people globally, initially through text messages and later via voice and video communication. The three sections below highlight how this app has impacted communication trends globally.
Messaging frequency and engagement levels
How frequently do people send messages on WhatsApp, and what are the engagement levels on the platform? Here are a few key statistics.
According to Will Cathcart, who became the head of WhatsApp at Meta in 2019, WhatsApp was responsible for delivering 100 billion messages daily by October 2020. With its user base having significantly increased since the number of messages exchanged, it is bound to be much higher today.
Engagement on WhatsApp is also rather high compared to most other mobile apps. In fact, it ranks third in terms of time spent on the app, only after YouTube and Facebook, which take the first two spots, respectively.
WhatsApp also has the third-highest total downloads after TikTok and Instagram.
Among all age groups, 20.0% of those between 55 and 65 consider WhatsApp their favorite social media platform. Those between 45 and 54 come in second place, with 17.9% stating that it’s their favorite social media platform.
Sources: X (Twitter), Data Reportal
Voice and video call usage
The statistics below highlight the popularity of voice and video calls on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp first introduced voice messaging on the platform in 2013. According to official data from WhatsApp, as of March 2022, about 7 billion voice messages had been sent on the platform.
According to a survey conducted by Bitkom, every second user uses WhatsApp to make calls.
70% of respondents also stated that they shared media files such as pictures, videos, GIFs, and links.
WhatsApp Status usage
WhatsApp allows you to update your status on the app, but how popular is this feature? Here are the numbers.
As of the second quarter of 2019, over half a billion people used WhatsApp’s Status feature. This increased from the 450 million reported to be using the feature in 2018.
Sources: Statista
WhatsApp for business and monetization strategies
WhatsApp is an app that people use to communicate with their loved ones. It also has a Business App designed for organizational use. The three sections below highlight the popularity of WhatsApp Business, its revenue model, and other commerce-related features on the platform.
Adoption of WhatsApp Business App
Here’s everything you need to know about the popularity of the WhatsApp Business app and the kind of organizations that use it.
As of June 2023, WhatsApp Business was reported to have about 200 million monthly active users. This increased from the 50 million monthly active users the app had as of July 2020.
As of February 2024, most of the WhatsApp Business downloads came from India, with 481 million downloads on Android and iOS devices combined. Indonesia ranked second out of the 60 countries analyzed for using the app, with about 128.4 million downloads.
WhatsApp’s revenue model and projected growth
How does WhatsApp generate revenue, and how much will it grow in the next few years? Here are the key statistics you should be aware of.
Ever since Meta acquired WhatsApp, the company has been unclear about how much revenue the app generates. A report on CNBC stated that Nick Lane, the founder of the research firm MobileSquareed, estimated WhatsApp’s revenue to be anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion. According to his predictions, this number adds up to less than 1% of Meta’s sales.
WhatsApp’s revenue from its Business app might surprise you. As of October 2023, its lifetime revenue totaled $123 thousand, with about $46.8 thousand coming from Brazil.
Mexico came second with a lifetime revenue of roughly $30 thousand. India, which had the highest share of the app’s downloads, generated a total revenue of about $7.8 thousand at the same time.
WhatsApp Pay and in-app commerce features
WhatsApp Pay was the platform’s approach to providing a seamless payment mechanism by which users and businesses could send and receive money. This was linked to the user’s bank account and was managed using a Unified Payments Interface (UPI) PIN.
This feature is available in India and Brazil. It was introduced in India in February 2018, and the addressable market is about 1 million users.
In November 2020, the platform received permission to launch the feature to about 20 million users. By April 2022, it was then allowed to release the feature to about 100 million users.
Besides WhatsApp Pay, the company has also released various features, such as Flows, that allow small businesses to reach their audiences on the app itself.
Users can reserve a train seat, order a meal, and so on without having to leave the app. The app also showed the Meta Verified badge, so users knew they were communicating with a genuine business.
The company also released a feature allowing users to find a business from the app. This feature was first introduced in Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Indonesia, and the UK in 2022.
Sources: Statista, WhatsApp, WhatsApp
WhatsApp’s growth and usage trends
How WhatsApp performs compared to other social media platforms and the scale at which users are adopting is essential to understanding the fuller picture of the app. You’ll find some key insights in the next two sections.
Yearly growth rates and new user acquisition
Here are a few statistics that chart WhatsApp’s growth rates over the years.
From the 200 million users WhatsApp had as of April 2013, the numbers grew to 500 million by April 2014, 800 million by April 2015, and 2 billion by March 2020.
According to a report on CNBC, WhatsApp helps Meta earn about $1.5 billion a year. However, this is just a drop compared to Meta’s cumulative earnings.
Comparison to other messaging apps
How does WhatsApp compare with other messaging and social media apps in terms of its market share and other key parameters? Here is what you need to know.
When you consider people’s preferences in terms of their favorite social media apps, WhatsApp comes in second place after Facebook. This applies to both male and female users.
In terms of the total time spent using the Android apps of all major social media apps, WhatsApp is third after YouTube and Facebook.
In terms of the average WhatsApp usage time per user, WhatsApp is fourth after TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook.
When you compare apps in terms of their monthly active users, WhatsApp comes in fourth place. Meta also owns four of the biggest social media apps in terms of user base.
Sources: Data Reportal, Statista
Data privacy and user satisfaction
How do WhatsApp’s users feel about the app's privacy features, and have there been any controversies surrounding its privacy model? The next two sections tell you everything you need to know.
Privacy features and user response
WhatsApp offers key privacy features to ensure users' conversations are always secure. With end-to-end encryption, all messages stay between you and the person you’re speaking to, with nobody else being able to access them.
You also have control over how much information users get to see, and you can lock chats so nobody can access them without your consent.
Sources: WhatsApp
Controversies and global response
In 2021, WhatsApp came under fire after an update that users suspected would allow it to share user data with its parent company, Facebook, now Meta. Users even thought that not agreeing to the changes in the app’s privacy policy would block their accounts.
WhatsApp was forced to review its privacy settings and fight the decline in its public perception. During this period, many even started downloading a competing app, Signal, in response to what they thought was their user data being compromised on WhatsApp.
WhatsApp was also fined €225 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission for breaching privacy regulations. At the time, WhatsApp issued various forms of communication clarifying that they consider the safety of user data to be of paramount importance.
The bottom line
WhatsApp has been key in helping people communicate with their loved ones across the world, but it’s also critical to small businesses. This guide has listed 40+ WhatsApp statistics that you should be aware of. If you need to transcribe WhatsApp voice messages or calls, an AI note-taking tool like Notta can help streamline your workflow.
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