As of March 2025, WhatsApp had three billion monthly active users, up from over 2 billion MAU in March 2020. The service is one of the most popular mobile messaging apps worldwide and was acquired by social network Facebook for 19 billion U.S. dollars in February 2014. WhatsAppWhatsApp is a cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones that relies on the internet for the transmission of messages. Based on a low-cost subscription model, WhatsApp is a cheap alternative to carrier-billed text messaging via SMS, especially for international or group messaging. The mobile messaging app enables users to share text, image and video messages. In the United States, the WhatsApp audience amounted to 68.1 million users in 2019 and is set to grow to 85.8 million users in 2023. WhatsApp is especially popular in markets outside the United States while facing strong competition from Asia-based social messenger apps such as WeChat, LINE or Kakaotalk. WhatsApp’s popularity in emerging mobile markets is not only based on their low-cost business model but on many of its features.

During the fourth quarter of 2024, communication platform WhatsApp Business had over 764.38 million monthly active users (MAU). This represents an increase of over six percent compared to the beginning of the year, when the B2C communication platform had approximately 907 million MAU. Launched in 2018, WhatsApp Business allows users to connect with companies' customer service representatives using the WhatsApp instant chat ecosystem.

As of June 2023, WhatsApp Business reported having over 200 million monthly active users (MAU) worldwide. Launched in January 2018, WhatsApp Business is a communication app tailor-made for small businesses to connect with their customers and communicate seamlessly. In July 2020, the app counted around 50 million MAU worldwide.

The number of WhatsApp users in North America was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 7.6 million users (+4.97 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach 160.51 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 Worldwide and Africa.

The number of WhatsApp users in Europe was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 2.6 million users (+2.17 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the WhatsApp user base is estimated to reach 122.38 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 Africa and South America.

During the first half of 2024, WhatsApp social in-app feature Channels had almost 40 million monthly active receivers, or users, in the European Union. This represents an increase from the second half of 2023, when the feature saw 31 million users. WhatsApp Channels was launched globally on September 2023.

WhatsApp is estimated to have reached almost *********** unique active users worldwide in June 2025, up by *** percent compared to the corresponding month in 2024. The popular instant messaging platform, which hit *********** monthly active users in February 2022, was the leading communication channel for global smartphone users in 2024.

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.

The global number of KakaoTalk users in was forecast to decrease between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.7 million users. This overall decrease does not happen continuously, notably not in 2026 and 2027. The KakaoTalk user base is estimated to amount to 48.7 million users in 2028. Notably, the number of KakaoTalk users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, here concerning the platform kakaoTalk, 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 and count multiple accounts by persons only once.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).

In January 2024, ** percent of WhatsApp monthly active users (MAU) surveyed in Brazil said they exchanged text messages through the mobile app. Around ** percent of respondents stated that they sent voice messages via WhatsApp. Moreover, ** percent of survey respondents stated that they used WhatsApp on a daily basis.

As of February 2025, two billion users were accessing the WhatsApp messenger on a monthly basis. The app’s reach in usage penetration is particularly strong in markets outside the United States, and it is one of the most popular mobile social apps worldwide. WeChat amassed over 1.38 billion users, and Facebook Messenger amassed around 947 million users worldwide. Instant messaging is a type of online chat which offers real-time text transmission via internet. Since the appearance of the smartphone and the subsequent explosion of mobile apps, low-cost or free chat and social messaging apps have proven themselves as a cheap alternative to operator-based text messaging via SMS. Many messenger apps offer features such as group chats, the exchange of graphics, video and even audio messages as well as stickers or emoticons.

Messaging platform WhatsApp was the leading mobile app by monthly active users (MAU) in Spain in 2022. Meta's services dominated the country's charts in this category, with Facebook and Instagram ranking second and third, and Facebook Messenger ranking fifth that year.

As of March 2025, cloud-based mobile messaging app Telegram reported over *********** monthly active users worldwide. Telegram is a chat app launched in 2013 by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov. The pair had previously founded the Russian social network VK, which they left when it was taken over by the Mail.ru Group. Telegram In 2023, the majority of Telegram’s global audience, was comprised of users aged between 25 and 34 years. Among the reasons to use Telegram, ** percent of the platform’s users reported to learn the majority of the news from Telegram. After the announcement that WhatsApp was going to release a new privacy policy update was met with criticism in 2021, Telegram's audience and popularity spiked, bringing global downloads to *** million. Telegram security criticism Despite claiming to be more secure than other mainstream messengers such as Line or WhatsApp, Telegram has been frequently criticized by industry experts such as German consumer organization Stiftung Warentest or the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). One of the key points of criticism is Telegram’s failure to provide automatic end-to-end encryption (WhatsApp and LINE messenger have end-to-end encryption set up by default).

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

In 2022, WhatsApp was the chat and communication app most used on daily basis among Android users, with **** billion monthly active users (MAU). Facebook messenger ranked second, with over *** million MAU, while Telegram counted *** million users active on monthly basis. Chat and VoIP communication app Line saw ** million monthly active users mainly in its Asian market.

In May 2022, YouTube was France's most used online network, with ***** million monthly active users. Meta owned Facebook and WhatsApp ranked second and third, with ***** and ***** million monthly active users, respectively. In addition, Pinterest and Twitter each had around ** million monthly active users in the country.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, Meta stated that 3.98 billion people were using at least one of the company's core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) each month. This was a slight increase of monthly active users (MAU) when compared to the previous quarter. Daily active users (DAU) of Meta's core products also saw year-over-year increases.

Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

Meta's family of apps continues to dominate the global social media landscape, with 3.43 billion daily active users across its core products in the first quarter of 2025. This represents a slight increase from the previous quarter and underscores the company's enduring influence in connecting people worldwide. Instagram's global reach and demographics Among Meta's portfolio, Instagram stands out with its impressive user base in key markets. India leads with 362 million users, followed by the United States with 169 million and Brazil with 134 million. Messenger and WhatsApp usage trends Meta's messaging apps continue to see robust engagement. Facebook Messenger averaged 394 million daily active users on Android devices between October 2023 and October 2024, with iOS users adding another 175 million on average. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has solidified its position as the leading communication channel for global smartphone users, reaching an estimated three billion unique active users worldwide in June 2024.

As of March 2021, male users in their *** accounted for **** percent of Snapchat's active user accounts in the United States. According to App Ape, women aged 20 to 29 years were the largest user group, accounting for 15.5 percent of the photo sharing app's user base on the Android platform. Snapchat stories and other features Released in 2011, Snapchat is now regarded as one of the earliest examples of mobile-first social media applications. The core feature of the platform is that messages and pictures are only available for a limited time before vanishing and becoming inaccessible. The app started out as a one-on-one messaging and photo sharing app, and now also a “Stories” function where users compile snaps into chronological storylines which are accessible to friends. Competitors Other social media platforms have also been quick to launch stories functions, the most successful among them being Instagram. The company reported 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users in January 2019. In comparison, Snapchat reported only *** million daily active users worldwide in the second quarter of 2019. The corresponding figure for the latest quarter reported was *** million. Messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have also successfully integrated stories into their product, chipping away at any unique features that Snapchat had claimed for itself. Other popular features of the Snapchat app include virtual stickers and various augmented reality (AR) objects and photo filters. In 2020, there were an estimated **** million social network augmented reality (AR) users in the United States, a figure expected to surpass ** million users by 2022.