Facebook-owned messaging app added 300m active users in 2014, as it prepares to introduce voice calls in 2015

Smartphone messaging app WhatsApp has reached a new milestone: 700 million monthly active users, who are sending 30 billion messages every day.

Chief executive Jan Koum published the figures as a status update on Facebook, the company that bought his startup for $22bn for his startup in October 2014.

“Today, we’re thrilled to share that WhatsApp has more than 700 million monthly active users. Additionally, every day our users now send over 30 billion messages,” wrote Koum.

“As humbled and excited as we are by these numbers and our continued growth, we’re even more excited to keep building a great product in 2015.”

WhatsApp’s rapid growth has thus continued since its acquisition by Facebook, which announced the then-$19bn deal in February 2014, before completing it at the higher price in October due to the inclusion of Facebook shares that had risen in value in the intervening months.

WhatsApp’s last public milestone was 600 million active users in August 2014 Read more