WhatsApp hits 500 million active users

Zee Media Bureau/Shruti Saxena

New Delhi: WhatsApp, the mobile messaging application, has achieved a milestone with a record of 500 million monthly active users. In an official blog post, CEO Jan Koum wrote, “Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users”. “In the last few months, we`ve grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day”, it added. In August 2013, WhatsApp had close to 200 million users, which is an indication that its user base has more than doubled in less than a year. WhatsApp Messenger is a mobile messaging application which allows users to exchange messages without having to pay for SMS.