This year, the total number of messaging app users worldwide will increase 12.1% to 2.52 billion people, eMarketer estimates. Growth will slow to 7.3% next year, reaching 2.70 billion users.
At 68.1 million, the US is in third place for number of net WhatsApp users, but that equates to just 7.7% of all users in the 18 countries eMarketer currently tracks. That’s because widespread use of regular SMS, Facebook Messenger and iMessage have held back WhatsApp adoption.
This year, for example, eMarketer expects the number of US Facebook Messenger users will be close to double that of WhatsApp users—117.6 million vs. 68.1 million, respectively.
However, the two apps are not mutually exclusive. Four of the top 10 countries for WhatsApp user penetration among smartphone users in 2019—Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Italy—are also among the top 10 countries for Messenger user penetration. And in the UK, where we expect 53.5% of smartphone users to use Messenger this year, 60.1% will use WhatsApp. Read the rest at eMarketer.
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