WhatsApp Passes 900 Million Monthly User Mark

WhatsApp just crossed 900 million monthly active users, but elsewhere, founder Jan Koum just may be preparing to take down the note from co-founder Brian Acton which reads “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks.” That is, if he didn’t do it immediately after Facebook bought his company for $19 billion in February last year.

The messaging app is free for a year, and costs a modest dollar per year after that. But with 900 million monthly users, parent Mark Zuckerberg might realize that there is scope for more. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp with 450 million users, Zuckerberg declared that he wanted to focus on growth rather than monetization but a 100 percent increase in figure in 19 months might tempt him to reconsider options.

And as TechCrunch notes, one doesn’t have to look beyond Facebook’s own Messenger which comes in a close second to WhatsApp with 700 million users. The social networking giant introduced two advertiser-friendly features within the span of five months — one where it wants to add a virtual personal assistant called ‘M’ within the messenger and a platform where users can create and share content, use third-party tools and speak to brands and businesses directly. It remains to be seen if these will be extended to WhatsApp, which has gained much traction globally but still struggles to gain prominence in the U.S.

WhatsApp is one of the most expensive, if not most valuable, properties in the Facebook stable. But it made $15 million for a loss of $232 million in the first half of 2014, doesn’t have a clear business model in place and there are some wondering if monthly active users is even a reliable metric.

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