Tech

Facebook says about 1 in 7 people on the planet now use WhatsApp

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There's a one-in-seven chance this woman uses WhatsApp.  Suzanne Plunket/Reuters

Facebook now has two one-billion-user products.

On Monday afternoon, Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp announced that one billion people use the app.

"That's nearly one in seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family," the company said in a blog post. " But now, it's back to work – because we still have another 6 billion people to get on WhatsApp, and a long way left to go."

WhatsApp's announcement, interestingly, came right after Google's parent company Alphabet announced quarterly earnings — which beat analysts' expectations and sent the stock soaring. During the call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that another Google product — Gmail — has recently broken the one billion monthly active user mark. 

Other one-billion plus Google products include Search, Android, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Play.

In contrast, Facebook has just one — its core Facebook app. Messenger has 800 million users, while Instagram has more than 400 million. It's suggested that video and search could also be reach the milestone in the not-too-distant future.

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Rob Price was a senior correspondent at Business Insider, based in San Francisco. He wrote investigations and long-form features about platforms, people, and power in Silicon Valley.His stories variously led to attorney general investigations, large-scale internal reviews at major tech companies, high-profile personnel departures, citation by state and federal lawmakers, and the closure of a well-funded startup. His 2022 story on the Bitfinex hack is being adapted into a feature film, and in 2024 he received an SPJ NorCal Excellence in Journalism award for his reporting on AI and relationships.Rob's scoops and exclusive stories were cited by The New York Times, Bloomberg, the BBC, Associated Press, Reuters, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Axios, and many other national and international publications. His writing has also been published in or syndicated by The Washington Post, The Independent, Vice, Slate, and elsewhere, and he appeared on CNN, the BBC, CBS, Reuters, ABC Australia, and other broadcast media to discuss technology, business, and culture.He worked for Business Insider from 2015 to 2025. Prior to joining the features team, Rob covered Facebook and Silicon Valley, and before that wrote about tech business, policy, and the gig economy in London. Between September and October 2019, he was acting executive editor for Business Insider's UK bureau. He also sat on the board of directors for the San Francisco Press Club, the leading non-profit media advocacy group in the Bay Area, and was a volunteer crew member at the Marine Mammal Center, the world's largest animal hospital for marine mammals. You can contact Rob Price via email at robaeprice@gmail.com, or +1 650-636-6268 (Signal / WhatsApp / Cell). Selected stories:— They spoke out against their employer. Then they were hit with trade secrets suits. The rise of 'shadow stand-ins'App, Lover, Muse: Inside a 47-year-old Minnesota man's three-year relationship with an AI chatbotDeel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growthPrivate islands, flying cars, and psychedelic parties: Inside the wild post-Google lives of Larry Page and Sergey Brin'I want your Instagram account': First came the threatening texts, followed by the SWAT teams. Then someone wound up dead.Inside Iconiq: How Mark Zuckerberg's banker built a secret Silicon Valley empire and made billionsGaia was a wildly popular yoga brand. Now it's a publicly traded Netflix rival pushing conspiracy theories while employees fear the CEO is invading their dreamsA drunken late-night assault allegation has roiled the secretive world of Mark Zuckerberg's private family office. Personal aides are speaking out about claims that household staff endured sexual harassment and racism from their colleagues.