WhatsApp user-base crosses 70 million inIndia

[Dinesh jain]

Mobile messenger service WhatsApp's user
base in India has grown to 70 million active-
users, which is over a 10th of its global users,
its business head Neeraj Arora said today.
"We have 70 million active-users here who use
the application at least once a month," Arora, a
vice-president with WhatsApp, said at the fifth
annual INK Conference here.
He said the total user-base for the company,
which was bought by Facebook in a
blockbuster USD 19-billion deal earlier this
year, is 600 million.
With over a 10th of the users from the country,
India is one of the biggest markets for
WhatsApp, he said, adding connecting billions
of people in markets like India and Brazil is the
aim of the company.
WhatsApp user-base crosses 70 million in India

 

[Devesh]

Yes now 7 crore active whatsapp users in india.

 

[iSK]

Mumbai: Mobile messenger service
WhatsApp's user base in India has
grown to 70 million active users,
which is over a 10th of its global
users, its business head Neeraj Arora
said today.

"We have 70 million active-users
here who use the application at least
once a month," Arora, a vice-
president with WhatsApp, said at the
fifth annual INK Conference here. He
said the total user-base for the
company, which was bought by
Facebook in a blockbuster $19 billion
deal earlier this year, is 600 million.

With over a 10th of the users from
the country, India is one of the
biggest markets for WhatsApp, he
said, adding connecting billions of
people in markets like India and
Brazil is the aim of the company.

Arora, an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and
ISB Hyderabad, said WhatsApp will
continue to hold a distinct identity
even after the takeover by Facebook
and will not get merged with the
social networking giant.

He said WhatsApp, which has only 80
employees, will benefit through
learnings from the social networking
giant.

Arora, who first heard of WhatsApp
as a business development executive
for the Internet search giant Google
and later joined as its business head,
said it took two years to stitch the $
19 billion deal announced this April.

Interestingly, Arora said he would
have paid a fraction of the sum to
buy WhatsApp three years back.

It would have been in "low tens of
million" dollars, he said stressing
that the company has grown a lot
since then. Arora said the user-base
has doubled to 600 million from the
30 million when he joined three years
ago. The company has flourished
because of its focus on the product,
rather than the business side of
things, he said.

"The founders wanted to develop a
cool product which will be used by
millions and did not have business
things like valuations," he said,
stressing that this continues to be a
motto of the company.

WhatsApp user base crosses 70 million mark in India