WhatsApp Statistics

Staggering WhatsApp Statistics on Its Strong Market Position

Hands down, WhatsApp is the #1 most popular mobile messenger app worldwide. In fact, the app rang in the New Year with its busiest day ever at more than 1.4 billion voice and video calls. 

Yet, 2021 was a year of highs and lows for WhatsApp. While the COVID pandemic brought new users and businesses to WhatsApp overall, the app also faced fierce competition.

For example, in January 2021, Telegram beat out WhatsApp in highest number of downloads, due to users becoming frustrated by WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. 

Even so, WhatsApp continues to impress across the board. To give you a sense of WhatsApp’s strong market position, we’ve put together top WhatsApp statistics below.


Top WhatsApp Statistics

WhatsApp continues to see stunning growth and usage. Here are some winning statistics about this messaging app:

  • In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion.
  • Today, WhatsApp leads messaging apps worldwide at a whopping 2 billion monthly active users.
  • WhatsApp is also the 3rd most popular social platform worldwide after Facebook and YouTube.
  • 58% of global active users access WhatsApp more than once a day.
  • At the start of COVID, users spent an estimated total 15 billion minutes on WhatsApp calls every day.
  • WhatsApp revenue was estimated to be at $5.5 billion in 2020. 

WhatsApp’s Popularity Worldwide

Most popular social platforms

Source: We Are Social

WhatsApp ranks third for the world’s most popular social platforms, just shy of 2.29 billion on YouTube and 2.74 billion on Facebook.

Monthly active users

Source: Statista

WhatsApp has also experienced intense growth within the last few years, adding 1 billion new users in the last four years.


WhatsApp’s User Demographics

WhatsApp is popular across diverse users. Specifically, this messaging app is used by:

  • 45.5% female users and 54.5% male users.
  • In the U.S., 46% of WhatsApp users are Hispanic, followed by 23% black and 16% white.
  • Regarding income levels, 29% of WhatsApp users in the U.S. make over $75,000 a year. The next largest bracket at 23% is those earning less than $30,000.
  • WhatsApp is most popular with 26-35 year olds at 27% of the user base, followed by users aged 36-45 at 20%.
Whatsapp users by age group

Source: Statista


WhatsApp’s User Behavior

Time spent on top social media

Source: We Are Social

WhatsApp users are quite busy, spending 19.4 hours per month on the app, compared to Facebook’s 19.5 hours per month.

In addition, WhatsApp users show the following behaviors, including:

  • An average user opens WhatsApp between 23 to 25 times a day.
  • On average, recipients read 80% of WhatsApp messages within five minutes.
  • 91% of users access WhatsApp at least once a month and 78% access it weekly.
  • German users are particularly active on WhatsApp with 75% of the population using it weekly and 63% daily. 
App messages sent per day

Source: Backlinko

WhatsApp also shows big numbers for messages, including over 100 billion WhatsApp messages sent every day and over 2 billion minutes spent on WhatsApp voice and video calls every day.


WhatsApp in the U.S.

The U.S. has the 3rd highest number of WhatsApp users at 75.1 million. In addition, user behavior in the U.S. is defined by these statistics:

  • By 2023, the U.S. is estimated to have 85.8 million WhatsApp users.
  • American users spend 7.7 hours per month on WhatsApp. 
  • The average American user has 143.35 WhatsApp sessions per month. 
  • 50% of WhatsApp users in the U.S. are daily users, 78% are weekly users and 91% are monthly users.

WhatsApp’s Popularity by Country

Whatsapp global map

Source: SimilarWeb

WhatsApp is a world leader in messaging apps, taking the #1 spot for 58 countries and 30% of the world. In fact, 69% of internet users use WhatsApp, excluding China.

Countries leading in number of WhatsApp users include India, Brazil and the United States, which together make up over half a billion users:

Whatsapp users by country

Source: Backlinko

However, the penetration rate for WhatsApp is much higher in other countries.

For example, the U.S. has 75.1 million WhatsApp users, which is just 22.5% of internet users.

Other countries have much higher penetration rates, including:

Whatsapp penetration rate by country

Source: Finances Online

For example, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina, Malaysia, Colombia and Brazil have WhatsApp penetration rates higher than 90%.

In addition, other countries are quickly expanding WhatsApp use. Russia leads the pack with 17% growth in monthly active users in the last year. Other countries with high growth include India (at 16.6%), France (at 16.6%) and Indonesia (at 15.1%).

What’s more, these countries had high growth in WhatsApp downloads in the Google Play Store during early 2021:

App growth rate by country

Source: Statista

On a final note, there are six countries where WhatsApp is banned or restricted, including China, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Cuba. 


WhatsApp Business Statistics

WhatsApp Business use has spiked in recent years. There are currently 50 million WhatsApp Business users worldwide. According to estimates, 175 million people contact business accounts on WhatsApp every day.

2021 has been a particularly big year for WhatsApp, likely due to the pandemic. In January alone, it was downloaded 18 million times in the Google Play Store.

In fact, WhatsApp grew significantly during COVID, increasing small-to-medium business use by 132%:

COVID business use of Whatsapp

Source: Finances Online


WhatsApp Feature Statistics

Finally, WhatsApp features have long impressed users. Here are some top features by the numbers:

  • WhatsApp can be downloaded in 180 countries and 60 languages.
  • There are over 1 billion WhatsApp groups.
  • An estimated 4.5 billion photos are shared on WhatsApp every day.
  • Half a billion WhatsApp accounts use the status feature every day.

Final Takeaway

Ultimately, WhatsApp has upheld its top ranked spot and grown during the pandemic. Though it may have lost some users due to privacy earlier this year, it maintains a strong foothold as the #1 messaging app worldwide.  

As WhatsApp continues to lead the market, we’ll keep an eye out for even more statistics about this messenger app. 

Are you a stat fan? Explore top statistics about WordPress, the Internet and more on our blog. 


Sources
  • https://wearesocial.com/digital-2021
  • https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-united-states-of-america
  • https://www.similarweb.com/corp/blog/research/market-research/worldwide-messaging-apps/
  • https://www.statista.com/topics/2018/whatsapp/
  • https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/whatsapp-recorded-more-than-1-4-billion-voice-video-calls-on-new-years-eve-globally/2162878/
  • https://financesonline.com/whatsapp-statistics/
  • https://99firms.com/blog/whatsapp-statistics/

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Article by:

Nadia

Nadia is a content writer with a B.A. in English and Spanish from Northwestern University. She crafts content for a variety of industries, including tech and business.
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