Facebook Messenger Has 500 Million Monthly Users

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Remember the outcry and the sheer rage when Facebook started forcing people to download their messenger app? People questioned why they had to download a separate app to do something they could already do in the main app and then there was the issue over privacy concerns.

Facebook have always stressed that there were good reasons behind splitting the app into two different parts. Last week, Mark Zuckerberg held a Q&A session and of course this was a hot topic which Zuckerberg addressed.

“The first thing I want to do is acknowledge that asking everyone in our community to install a new app is a big ask. We really believe that this is a better experience and the messaging is really important. Each app can do one thing well.”

So after hundreds of people claiming that they were going to ditch Facebook, ditch the messenger and claim they were sick of Facebook entirely, all over having to install a new app, was there any weight to those sentiments?

Apparently not. Facebook Messenger has passed the 500 million download milestone and Facebook says that this number of people is also actively using the service too. So the original shift may not actually have been as unpopular as people thought, or we simply rely too much on Facebook in order to communicate.

To put this in perspective, WhatsApp claims to have just over 600 million monthly active users. Facebook is catching up fast.

About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis, he is also a proud father of his bearded dragon, Lola. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here.