That is a very impressive figure as there are not many messenger apps that can claim that. The closest we think that could potentially challenge WhatsApp would be China’s WeChat platform, which last we checked was home to about 1 million users. We also wouldn’t be surprised if it were to catch up, especially with the variety of services that it offers alongside messaging.
WhatsApp has also taken this opportunity to reiterate the importance of encryption, where they say that the more users they have, the more important that encryption is. According to the company, “Strong encryption is a necessity in modern life. We will not compromise on security because that would make people less safe. For even more protection, we work with top security experts, employ industry leading technology to stop misuse as well as provide controls and ways to report issues — without sacrificing privacy.”
That being said, with WhatsApp having such a massive user base, Facebook (who owns WhatsApp) has yet to monetize the platform. The company did previously plan to introduce ads into WhatsApp Statuses, but they eventually backtracked on that.