WhatsApp handles 50 billion messages daily, more than SMS delivery

WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging service that has been around for a while. In June of 2013, the WhatsApp service hit a record with a daily average of 27 billion messages sent and received. With 2014 now here, WhatsApp has hit another record and has grown significantly since last summer.

Numbers show that WhatsApp is now hosting 50 billion messages on an average day. The messaging service is also now boasting 430 million users. That is a significant increase in users from the 400 million number offered at the end of 2013.

That additional 30 million users came in the course of about one month. The volume of messages shared on the app is growing and is thought to have already overtaken the volume of messages sent using SMS.

One of the things that is helping WhatsApp drive its business growth is that the service is ad free. It costs 99 cents per year for the paid service with no ads shown. The app is free for the first year to help the users get hooked and then the annual fee kicks in. The CEO of WhatsApp says that the company will continue to focus on messaging alone with no games or disappearing photos to muddy the waters. WhatsApp did add push to talk voice messaging to its features last summer.

SOURCE: Firstpost