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WhatsApp now the most popular Android messaging app in the world

By Lulu Chang May 25, 2016

whatsapp — prykhodov/123rf

The number of people saying what’s up with WhatsApp has officially made the messaging app the most popular Android chatting app in the world. According to a new report from SimilarWeb, WhatsApp claims the greatest number of users in 109 countries, or 55.6 percent of the 187 nations surveyed.

The app, which was acquired by Facebook back in 2014 for a staggering $19 billion, outpaces the native Facebook Messenger by quite a significant margin — in only 49 countries does Mark Zuckerberg’s social media messaging system rank highest in terms of users. And with WhatsApp’s eagerly anticipated video-calling feature soon to be unveiled, the gap between WhatsApp and just about everyone else may continue to grow.

The app is particularly favored in Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia. And part of its appeal lies in its ability to transcend geographic borders — throughout Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa, people can’t seem to get enough of WhatsApp and its global network of chatters and texters.

Of course, there are a few apps that are a bit more niche in their user demographics. In Japan, Line reigns supreme, with users logging in and sending stickers around for an average of 40 minutes a day. And in South Korea, KakaoTalk is widely beloved with its own unique collection of emojis and emoticons.

One of the SimilarWeb’s more surprising findings, perhaps, was the continued dominance of BlackBerry’s BBM service — at least in one country. In Indonesia, the app is installed on 87.5 percent of Android phones, and is indeed the chosen method of smartphone communication. This varies dramatically from the rate of installation in other countries — in the U.S., for example, only 0.42 percent of Android users have installed the BlackBerry app.

To see what messaging apps are the most popular around the world, check out the full SimilarWeb study here.

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