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WhatsApp hits new high

Bonnie Tubbs
By Bonnie Tubbs, ITWeb telecoms editor.
Johannesburg, 03 Apr 2014
WhatsApp's record of 64 billion messages processed in a day trumps its previous records of 54 billion and 18 billion.
WhatsApp's record of 64 billion messages processed in a day trumps its previous records of 54 billion and 18 billion.

WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging (IM) platform that positions itself as an alternative to SMS, has broken its own record of messages processed in one day.

The company took to Twitter yesterday to inform followers it has attained a new daily record: "20B messages sent (inbound) and 44B messages received (outbound) by our users = 64B messages handled in just 24 hours."

The 64 billion figure trumps WhatsApp's previous record of 54 billion. On 7 January, the company tweeted: "Happy '14! On Dec 31st our users sent 18B msgs and received 36B = 54 billion total messages in a day."

A year prior to that - on the day after New Year's Day - WhatsApp told followers via Twitter: "On Dec 31st we had a new record day: 7B msgs inbound, 11B msgs outbound = 18 billion total messages processed in one day! Happy 2013!"

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck, who released the Mobility 2014 research study in November last year, said at the time WhatsApp was taking over in the IM arena.

Goldstuck's research showed the uptake of WhatsApp in SA had more than doubled its penetration in 18 months, from 26% to 53% (10 million users). A further 10% of cellphone users said they would use WhatsApp in the coming year.

Facebook Chat was found to be the second most popular chat tool, with 45% of respondents using it.

In February, Facebook announced it would buy the fast-growing IM start-up for $19 billion in cash and stock.

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