Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday on his channel that WhatsApp now has more than 100 million monthly active users in the U.S., a country where SMS/texts is a popular mode of communication.
The announcement is the first time WhatsApp has released data about users in the U.S. The company also noted that more than 50% of WhatsApp’s users have iPhones, which is not surprising given that iOS has the majority market share in the country.
WhatsApp is a popular app worldwide, with more than 2 billion active users monthly. The company has historically focused on countries like India, which is WhatsApp’s largest user base with more than 500 million monthly active users, and Brazil and Indonesia.
WhatsApp has recently ramped up its marketing push in the U.S. In the past few years, WhatsApp has placed ad campaigns, placements in Times Square and TV spots emphasizing privacy and end-to-end encryption protection. Most recently, it started a national campaign about WhatsApp by bringing back some of the cast of the TV show “Modern Family.”
Just like Google, Meta has emphasized in its marketing the differences between green bubble and blue bubble devices caused by Apple’s iMessage. But now that Apple has adopted Rich Communication Services (RCS), Android users can send and receive high-quality media files and have options to look at typing indicators and read receipts. The messages will still be green, though, according to screenshots of Apple’s website.
However, Meta is still pushing its cross-platform app by highlighting some other features, such as polls, high-quality video calling and reactions. The company is capping off the announcement with another marketing campaign by placing a 200-foot bubble between the Apple and Samsung stores in The Americana Mall in Los Angeles.
