One in seven people on Earth now use Facebook Messenger
Approximately one in seven people on the planet now use Facebook’s Messenger platform as the social media giant reveals that it has surpassed 1bn monthly users.
Along with another Facebook-owned platform – WhatsApp – Messenger is a threat to the traditional SMS text messaging market, the mainstay of revenues for many of the world’s mobile operators. Not only that, but 10pc of all voice over IP (VoIP) calls are made through Messenger.
Facebook has been evolving the platform to do more than just message, making it a place to facilitate payments, book Uber rides, share Spotify playlists and much more.
With 1bn users every month, Messenger is the second-most popular iOS app of all time, behind Facebook. The messaging app has been downloaded more than 1bn times on Android devices.
Business interaction increasing on Facebook Messenger
More than 1bn messages are sent between people and businesses each month, double the amount of last year.
Since the platform opened, over 18,000 chatbots have launched on Messenger and over 23,000 developers have signed up for Wit.ai’s Bot Engine
“As part of this journey to 1bn, we focused on creating the best possible experiences in modern-day communications,” said David Marcus, VP of Messenger at Facebook.
“We remain focused on helping connect people to the people and businesses who matter most. Thank you to everyone who uses Messenger around the world, and we’re looking forward to connecting the next billion.”
Facebook revealed that people send more than 17bn photos to friends through Messenger every month and, on average, more than 22m GIFs are sent every day via Messenger – that’s 254 GIFs per second.
The social network revealed that there are more than 250 different sticker packs available in Messenger with more than 4,000 stickers, and that 380m stickers are sent every day by users.
Messenger image via Shutterstock
