That’s far behind its audience in countries such as India, Brazil and Indonesia where it is among the most popular modes of communication. While WhatsApp has grown into a formidable force since then, used by more than a quarter of the world’s population, the platform’s reach in its home market remains comparatively small.ĭata shared with CNN Business by research firm eMarketer indicates WhatsApp had less than 63 million users in the United States as of last year, or around 19% of the country’s population. Those warnings are courtesy of WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service acquired by Facebook in 2014. In a TV commercial, a mailman hands already-opened letters and packages to outraged recipients, before telling them that “every text you send is just as open as your letters.”

The consequence, outlined next to the text bubble: “If your personal texts aren’t end-to-end encrypted, it’s not private.” “I think I left the car unlocked, can you check?” reads a text message displayed on one of the billboards. Is it possible that Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp will eventually become a communication monolith, a feature-loaded app that lets you message friends, make restaurant reservations, and pay your rent without ever leaving Facebook? Sure, but not any time soon.Since the start of this year, a series of advertisements have appeared on television screens and billboards across the United States, with ominous warnings to texters. We share ideas, technologies, and infrastructure, but there’s no strong competition.” It’s about building a simple, reliable and fast product. “We continue to develop our products independently,” Acton said. So WhatsApp isn’t concerned with Messenger’s forays into payments and platform. Now that WhatsApp is in the Facebook fold, the network has two messaging apps that Zuckerberg hopes will reach a billion users apiece. (Left to right) Moderator Mary Meeker, of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, with Brian Acton, cofounder of WhatsApp Mike Krieger, cofounder and technical lead of Instagram and David Marcus, VP of messaging at Facebook. We had an alignment of mission in terms of connecting the world’s population.” “We were able to have the confidence that our partnership with Facebook would work well.

“We looked at it as a model for success,” Acton said.

Whatsàpp messenger