WhatsApp crosses 3 billion month-to-month customers as Meta doubles down on AI technique
WhatsApp has joined the rarefied membership of apps with over 3 billion month-to-month lively customers, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed throughout the firm’s Q1 earnings name on Wednesday.
The milestone locations WhatsApp alongside its sibling app, Fb, as one of many few platforms on this planet to cross the three billion person threshold.
Based in 2009 and purchased by Meta (then Fb) in 2014 for $19 billion, WhatsApp has grown steadily with out adverts or subscription charges.
The app reached 2 billion month-to-month customers in 2020 and has now added one other billion in simply 4 years, cementing its dominance in international messaging.
AI utilization on WhatsApp
This huge person base is turning into more and more necessary as Meta pivots in direction of synthetic intelligence.
Based on Meta CFO Susan Li, WhatsApp is now probably the most lively platform for Meta’s AI instruments throughout its suite of apps. Most customers are presently partaking with Meta AI through one-on-one chats, she added.
“We see folks interact with Meta AI from a number of totally different entry factors. WhatsApp continues to see the strongest Meta AI utilization throughout our household of apps,” Li stated.
- Zuckerberg additionally identified that whereas WhatsApp is a strong entry level for AI in lots of components of the world, adoption in the USA lags attributable to customers’ desire for default SMS apps.
- To bridge that hole, Meta lately launched a standalone Meta AI app focused at U.S. customers, positioning it as a go-to private AI assistant.
“We’re in a special place within the U.S. than we’re in a lot of the remainder of the world on WhatsApp. So I believe that the Meta AI app as a standalone goes to be significantly necessary… as the principle private AI that folks use,” Zuckerberg stated.
WhatsApp Enterprise
Past shopper use, WhatsApp can also be proving helpful for Meta’s enterprise ambitions. The app’s business-facing platform, WhatsApp Enterprise, performed a significant function in serving to Meta generate $510 million in Q1 income from its household of apps.
Meta is now integrating AI instruments into WhatsApp Enterprise, together with a brand new dashboard that permits companies to coach Meta AI utilizing their very own knowledge, akin to content material from their web sites, WhatsApp profiles, Instagram pages, or Fb accounts.
The corporate can also be testing the power for companies to activate AI-powered chatbots to deal with buyer conversations on the platform.
Meta’s Q1 efficiency
In its Q1 2025 outcomes, Meta reported that its Household of apps, comprising Fb, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, recorded a median of three.43 billion day by day lively folks (DAP), a rise of 6% year-over-year.
- The corporate additionally disclosed that advert impressions delivered throughout its Household of Apps elevated by 5% year-over-year, whereas common worth per advert elevated by 10% year-over-year.
- Meta’s income for the quarter was $42.31 billion, a rise of 16% year-over-year.
