WhatsApp is probably one of the more popular instant messaging apps available at the moment, and thanks to recent reports, it has been suggested that the total number of WhatsApp messages sent might have finally overtaken the number of SMSes sent. Speaking on stage during the DLD conference in Germany, WhatsApp’s CEO confirmed that they process more than 50 billion messages everyday, almost doubling what we heard back in June 2013 where it was estimated that there were over 27 million WhatsApp messages being sent on a daily basis. Of course the number of SMSes sent has to be confirmed by carriers themselves, but it has been speculated that WhatsApp might have finally overtaken SMS.
Given that WhatsApp is a free service, subscription fee notwithstanding, naturally carriers see the service as a threat to its own SMS services. Considering that a subscription fee to WhatsApp costs on an annual basis less than it would take to send a few international SMSes, we’re not surprised that this is how carriers feel about the situation. In fact we have heard reports of what less SMSes are being sent on a daily basis because of alternatives such as WhatsApp, LINE, Snapchat, Viber that offer similar messaging tools but with more features and at a much cheaper price. Back in 2012 it was even estimated that WhatsApp had cost some carriers around the world tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue.