WhatsApp hits ONE BILLION users

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Web Desk) - WhatsApp has reached one billion user milestone, which means one in every seven people in the world is using the online chat service.

“As of today, one billion people are using WhatsApp,” the firm said on its blog Tuesday.

Last month WhatsApp abandoned its 99 cent subscription fee.

The annual fee is set to disappear over the next few weeks and the company plans to experiment with 'other commercial services' for future revenue streams.

That's good news for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who spearheaded the jaw-dropping $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp two years ago on the promise it could grow to become one of the world's most-used communication platforms.

“One billion people now use WhatsApp. Congrats to Jan [Koum], Brian [Acton] and everyone who helped reach this milestone!" Mark Zuckerberg said on his personal Facebook account.

According to WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, 42 billion messages, 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos are shared every day on the platform, while there are now over one billion groups on the service.

WhatsApp now outperforms the social network's own Messenger mobile app, which has 800 million monthly users.

It had 450 million monthly active users and $10.8 million annual sales before Facebook acquired it.

Facebook bought the mobile messaging app in 2014, in a deal worth $19bn (£11.4bn). The usage data the platform generates for Facebook could help the company improve its targeted advertising, which is its core business model.