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