- Whatsapp has crossed more than 400 million monthly active users in India.
- A study by Cisco says that there will be more than 800 million smartphone users by 2022.
In a recent report revealed by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at an event in New Delhi, Whatsapp has crossed more than 400 million monthly active users in India.
As reported by TechCrunch, A spokesperson from WhatsApp confirms that the instant messaging service owned by Facebook has reached the 400 million monthly active user milestone in the country. In 2017, the messaging platform had revealed that it had reached 200 million users in India. Kant also added that the service will reach more than a billion users in the next three years.
A study by Cisco says that there will be more than 800 million smartphone users by 2022. According to Counterpoint Research, India has more than 450 million smartphone users and it could reach 700 million by 2022.
Recently, Whatsapp announced that they will be launching its payment service Whatsapp Pay in the country. Right now not everyone can access the feature within the existing app.
What is Whatsapp Pay?
Whatsapp Pay is a UPI-based payments service which exists in India in beta mode. The users can link their UPI-enabled bank account and transfer money through the messaging app. It supports all the popular banks like HDFC, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI and even Airtel Payments Bank.
Right now this service is only available to beta users. To enable the service, one needs to initiate the payment, once the request is received the user can set their UPI account.
This service will make payments as easy as sending a video or a photo.
History
Whatsapp messenger is a freeware and instant messaging service owned by Facebook. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, makes voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media.
It was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum who were former employees of Yahoo. Both of them were rejected by Facebook when they went there to apply.
In 2014, Facebook acquired Whatsapp as its largest acquisition for $19 billion. Facebook added a lot of features after acquiring it which includes voice calls and stories.
