In 2021, WhatsApp's user base in India amounts to approximately ****** million users. The number of WhatsApp users in India is projected to reach ****** million users by 2025. User figures have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to *** countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

India recorded about 200 million monthly active users in February 2017. With over 460 million internet users, India ranked second largest in the internet market worldwide. By 2023, it was estimated that this figure would surpass over 666 million internet users. Interestingly, amongst these users, over 390 million people accessed the web over their mobile phones.

The rise of digital India

With a mobile friendly approach to the internet, the use of social media applications was correspondingly high in India. By 2021, studies had found that around 29 percent of the total population would be active social media users. Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp were ranked among the most popular social networking sites in the country based on usage reach.

Social media transcends socio-economic boundaries

The high penetration of the mobile messaging application came as no surprise considering that the use of the messaging app had been increasing rapidly over the last few years. Although most WhatsApp users came from urban areas, rural areas recorded an increasing share of the app adoption. This adoption spread was also true across income groups. With increasing social media usage, there was also rising issues with the believability of information shared over these platforms, leading to the increase in fake news and cybercrime.

According to a survey on the usage of WhatsApp across India in 2018, almost half of the respondents aged between 18 and 25 years were active WhatsApp users. The share of active users of the app declined with an increase in the age group.

As of the third quarter of 2024, Nigeria saw approximately **** percent of the country's digital population engaging with mobile social messaging platform WhatsApp on a monthly basis. Approximately **** percent of internet users in South Africa reported using WhatsApp every month, while Brazil saw **** percent of its internet users engaging with the platform. By comparison, only **** percent of internet users in France reported using the messaging app, while the United States had the lowest WhatsApp usage rate among the examined markets. WhatsApp usage worldwide As of February 2025, WhatsApp counted roughly two billion global monthly active users. The Facebook-owned mobile messaging service is particularly popular in mobile-first countries, with more than ***** million downloads during the fourth quarter of 2024 in India alone. However, after the app’s 2021 controversial privacy update, ** percent of users in the country have intended to drastically reduce their WhatsApp usage and start using other communication channels, like SMS, e-mails, or migrate to WhatsApp competitors Telegram and Signal. WhatsApp privacy update woes WhatsApp’s major privacy policy update announced on January 4, 2021 was not well received by users worldwide. The most controversial aspect of the update saw WhatsApp requesting users to give permission to share data like mobile phone numbers and locations with its parent company Facebook or stop using the app altogether. As a result, WhatsApp faced a *** million U.S. dollars fine from the Data Protection Commission for not respecting Europe’s GDPR, as well as a ******* euros fine in Turkey for privacy rules violations.Subsequently, many users chose to migrate towards competing messaging platforms like Telegram and Signal. During the first quarter of 2021, Telegram downloads worldwide spiked, reaching ***** million downloads in the Asia-Pacific region. Similarly, Signal reached ** million installs in January 2021, up by more than **** percent compared to the previous month.

There are over *** million WhatsApp users in ***** alone, making it the leading country in terms of WhatsApp audience size. Second-ranked ****** had ***** million WhatsApp messenger users. ******** is one of the most used messaging services worldwide.

With over *** million downloads on Android devices, most WhatsApp Business downloads as of May 2025 came from users in India. Ranking second out of the ** countries analyzed was Pakistan, with approximately *** million lifetime downloads as of the examined period.

As of April 2022, Brazil presented the highest share of WhatsApp users, with around nine in 10 messaging app users in the country engaging with the social and instant messaging app. WhatsApp had a penetration rate of approximately 97 percent among messaging and chat app users in India and Italy. Phone messaging users in Australia presented the lowest usage share of WhatsApp, with only 33 percent of mobile phone messaging app users reporting engaging with the Meta-owned app.

As per the results of a survey on WhatsApp usage in India in 2017 and 2018, it was found that there was a ten percent increase in the share of active WhatsApp users in rural India to reach around ** percent in 2018. This was about ** percent in urban areas during the survey period.

In a survey conducted by Local Circles in January 2021, around ** percent of the participants in India considered reducing WhatsApp usage drastically by either switching to alternative applications or by using other services such as e-mail or SMS. On the contrary, ** percent of the respondents intended to move away from the app completely.

Based on the results of a survey about WhatsApp users across India in 2018, about ** percent of respondents who belonged to the poor economic class were active users of the messaging app. While this was about ** percent for upper middle class and rich respondents during the survey period.

WhatsApp Pay is a feature that users in the markets of Brazil and India can use to transfer money to their contacts or receive money in their bank accounts. In February 2018, WhatsApp Payr was released as a beta version in India, with an addressable market of one million users. In November 2020, the platform received permission to launch the service to 20 million Indian users in total. In April 2022, WhatsApp pay was allowed by the country's regulator to reach a total of 100 million users.

As per the results of a survey regarding WhatsApp usage by rural Indians in 2018, it was found that more than ** percent of respondents spent between one and two hours on a daily basis using the messaging app. At the same time, **** percent of the respondents spent over ***** hours daily using the app.

The global number of WhatsApp users in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 76.3 million users (+8.29 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach 996.58 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of WhatsApp users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform whatsapp, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).Find more key insights for the number of WhatsApp users in countries like Asia and South America.

In 2023, the number of global consumers and companies using WhatsApp Business was estimated to surpass *** billion users. Asia and Europe, which include some of WhatsApp leading global markets such as India, were estimated to have the highest number of users on WhatsApp Business. Around *** million WhatsApp regular users and company accounts in Asia were estimated to have interacted on WhatsApp Business in 2023.Launched in 2018, WhatsApp Business allows companies to be easily found by users on the platform. Users on WhatsApp can initiate a conversation with companies holding a business profile in a seamless way, without the need to download an extra app or switch programs.

As per the results of a survey on WhatsApp usage by rural Indians in 2018, it was found that more than ** percent of respondents spent between ****** and ** texts on a daily basis using Whatsapp. At the same time, around ** percent of the respondents used the mobile app to exchange between ** to ** texts daily.

According to the results of a survey on rural India, *** respondents were part of family whatsApp groups, while about *** stated that they were part of local administration groups on WhatsApp. The highest number of respondents were part of groups with friends on the social networking app.

In 2022, users worldwide spent approximately ***** percent fewer hours per month using WhatsApp compared to the previous year. India was the market that registered the highest loss in WhatsApp users' engagement, with users in the country spending ** percent less time on the app in the examined year. By comparison, France was the market reporting the highest growth in WhatsApp engagement, with users in the country spending approximately *** percent more time on the app compared to the previous year.

During the second quarter of 2024, iOS users in the United States generated almost five million WhatsApp downloads. India ranked second, with almost 2.1 million downloads in the last examined quarter. During the measured period, the mobile messenger app was downloaded a total of 27 million times to iOS devices worldwide.

According to a LocalCircles survey, ** percent of Indians had received spam or promotional messages selling financial services on the instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, as of February 2023. Most of the WhatsApp users in India had received unsolicited messages related to financial services, real estate selling, job or money offers.

WhatsApp emerged as the most used social media app in India, with users spending an average of ** hours per month on the instant messaging platform in 2021. Facebook followed ******* with users spending just under ** hours on average on it per month. The government-imposed ban on TikTok contributed to higher engagement on Meta Platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, among Indian users between 2020 and 2021.