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WhatsApp to have 1bn users by mid-2016

Paula Gilbert
By Paula Gilbert, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 11 Jan 2016
Strategy Analytics believes Facebook family messaging services will continue to be a strong force behind the continued ascendancy of OTT messaging.
Strategy Analytics believes Facebook family messaging services will continue to be a strong force behind the continued ascendancy of OTT messaging.

WhatsApp is expected to break the one billion user mark by mid-2016. This is according to Strategy Analytics' recent report on wireless media trends and predictions for 2016.

"After its acquisition by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp's strong user growth has not stalled, reaching 900 million in September 2015," according to the report.

Strategy Analytics also predicts that by the end of this year, WhatsApp and Facebook's own Messenger, which currently has around 700 million users, will share two billion users between them ? with the majority of consumers using both platforms.

"The messaging services from the Facebook family will continue to be a strong force behind the continued ascendancy of OTT [over-the-top] messaging, at the expense of operators' SMS services."

However, Strategy Analytics believes both WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are continuing with their quest for viable monetisation of the messaging platforms.

"With WhatsApp's co-founder, Jan Koum's, mantra of 'no games, no ads, no gimmicks', we expect WhatsApp to focus on monetising core communication capabilities, like charging for WhatsApp calls terminating beyond existing WhatsApp users, similar to Skype's and Viber's 'call out' feature," says Strategy Analytics.

Data win

Other 2016 predictions from the research firm include that global mobile data users will reach 2.6 billion this year and that mobile advertising will continue to rise, despite growing interest in ad-blocking.

Strategy Analytics expects the global number of mobile data users to rise 11% in 2016, to 2.6 billion. This will be driven by increasing penetration of smartphones and more affordable data packages offered by mobile operators, among other factors.

"In particular, after a few years' retreat, we have seen operators' revived engagement in mobile media distribution, mainly around video.

"For mobile only operators, we have seen a greater focus on partnership strategies with OTT digital content services, with the emphasis on differentiating operator tariffs and brands from competitors, while creating incremental revenue uplift."

Mobile advertising will also likely continue to rise strongly in 2016, reaching $47.8 billion. This is despite the rising threat of ad-blocking software on major smartphone platforms and the threat of network-based ad-blocking technology being considered by mobile operators.

"While ad-blocking software has received attention in the media, we expect downloading and installing ad-blockers on phones to remain a niche activity and therefore to have a minor impact on mobile advertising revenue in 2016."

Strategy Analytics says mobile Web-based advertising is most at threat from ad-blocking software, but it expects in-app advertising spend to grow more rapidly in 2016.

"Mobile search is set to remain the dominant form of mobile advertising, as popular search providers such as Google and Baidu seek to monetise the increasing volume of overall searches being driven by mobile devices."

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