Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock reached an all-time intraday high on Wednesday, rising more than 1% to $121.92, around the announcement of a major milestone for Messenger. On Wednesday, the social media giant announced that now a billion people use Messenger every month.
Facebook Messenger growing rapidly
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) honored the event with a celebratory balloon emoji and called Messenger “one of only a handful of apps worldwide that touches so many lives.” The Messenger audience, which was built on Facebook’s widespread influence, has approached the size of the world’s largest countries.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has never been shy about touting the advantages of its messaging service. In honor of this celebration, the tech giant revealed some growth statistics. Three months ago, the company announced that Messenger had 900 million monthly users, and seven months ago, it announced that the app had passed 800 million monthly users.
The app is growing rapidly, as is evident from these growth statistics. Another Facebook app, WhatsApp, passed the 1 billion mark in February after seven years of operation. In comparison, the initial release ofMessenger as a standalone app was in 2011, just four years ago.
With Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) having more than 1.65 billion monthly active users and 1 billion people already using Messenger, it means that more than 60% of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) users communicate through the app. It appears that after the initial tussle, users have come to grips with Facebook’s messaging services. Messenger is the second most popular app on the App Store (behind Facebook), whereas the Android version of the app has been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
Messenger powers 10% of all VoIP calls
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) further claims that 10% of the overall VoIP (Voice over IP) calls are made globally using Messenger. The large percentage of people using Messenger for calls underlines the fact that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has fulfilled the promise he made last year. He promised that the quality of calls would improve as more people used the service.
The milestone comes at a time when social networking platforms like Snapchat are increasingly moving toward messaging, which is one of the most popular forms of communication abroad. According to data collected by eMarketer, Facebook Messenger was the top-used messaging app worldwide even before the milestone, followed by WhatsApp, Skype and Line.
To build out its Messenger platform, the social networking giant has been using its sizable pull and adding features like ride sharing, payments, thousands of bots, a digital assistant and automated apps within Messenger.
