Meta Announces WhatsApp Surpasses 3 Billion Monthly Active Users

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the messaging platform WhatsApp has surpassed 3 billion monthly active users on Wednesday. The milestone was shared during Meta’s Q1 earnings conference call, where the company also discussed its latest results and expectations for the upcoming period.

According to TechCrunch, WhatsApp’s user base has turned the platform into one of Meta’s most valuable businesses. The communication platform was purchased in 2014 for $19 billion and has been significantly growing since the acquisition.

The company recently expanded its AI features across more regions in Europe—after regulatory delays—, and more users have been using the technology through WhatsApp.

“We see people engage with Meta AI from several different entry points. WhatsApp continues to see the strongest Meta AI usage across our family of apps,” Meta’s CFO, Susan Li, said during the conference call.

The platform has been widely adopted in many countries, but Zuckerberg wants to expand more in the United States, where other messaging platforms prevail—WhatsApp reached 100 million users in the region last year.

“We hope to become the leader over time [in the U.S. messaging market], but we’re in a different position there than we are in most of the rest of the world on WhatsApp,” said Zuckerberg. “So I think that the Meta AI app as a standalone is going to be particularly important in the United States to establish leadership in — as the main personal AI that people use.”

Meta said WhatsApp provides a large portion of the company’s revenues and that the team is working on new features, like AI agents, to expand and engage more with customers.

The tech giant is currently facing an antitrust trial as it has been accused of building a monopoly after the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.