1 billion - How WhatsApp became BIG

As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp.

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.

All my congratulations go to WhatsApp, the founders and Mark Zuckerberg!

But how did WhatsApp became so big? They more then doubled their user count since the acquisition in February 2014.

Before I write my point of view here you have to know one thing about me: I’m not a WhatsApp lover (more a hater) and I really prefer Telegram for messaging for some reasons.

WhatsApp was the right app at the right place at the right time. In my opinion this is the main reason why WhatsApp became so big. All messenger on the market where full of useless features and hard to use (do you remember ICQ?).

It also was one of the first real messengers that where available for mobile. In 2007 the first iPhone was launched and WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton.

They focused on simplicity - WhatsApp is still very simple (too simple?) - which may be one important thing too.

Over the years WhatsApp grew more and more and Facebook saw a competitor in WhatsApp. So they practiced their way of turning competitors into “friends” - they bought WhatsApp.

This got a lot of media criticism and that’s I think is the second very important aspect. What’s the best way of getting attention? Starting a wave of skepticism from privacy addicted people…

But will WhatsApp become the next Facebook?

I’m one of that teens that don’t really use Facebook anymore - because too many relatives are there… Although Facebook is still growing I am skeptical about it’s future. Will this happen with WhatsApp too?

Maybe or maybe not. The one advantage of WhatsApp compared to Facebook is the thing that you can’t post anything - that’s maybe the reason for it.

What do you think about WhatsApp’s new milestone?