Getting 200 million new active users would be a feat worthy of celebration for any company. Indeed, there are very, very few platforms, websites or companies that can claim as much. However, adding that number when you already have a billion users is something quite else. Facebook Messenger recently achieved that feat and has added over 200 million users to its service in a span of merely eight months.
Announcing the news, Anand Chandrasekaran, Director, Facebook said:
On behalf of the entire Messenger team, we’d like to thank our growing community of more than 1.2 billion people who use Messenger every month. We’re grateful that you continue to use Messenger to stay in touch with the people and businesses that matter to you most.
True, growth was slightly slower. Facebook had added its last 200 million users in six months. However, as a service grows larger the number of audience available gets smaller so a slight decrease in the rate of growth is only to be expected.
There used to be a time when Messenger was the app you turned to to talk to people who had not shared their phone numbers with you. however, that time is long gone and past. The app has become the primary mode of communication for many users. This has been possible due to a variety of reasons including the fact that the app is actually one of the easiest ways to communicate. True, chatbots failed to take off but the other features Facebook has inoculated in messenger means that it has kept growing steadily.
For instance, I am one of the recent converts and only started using the app a month or so ago. The feature that hooked me to it and made it my primary medium of communication was how the people you were talking to appeared on top of you screen as little balloons. Tap them and the conversation comes up or leave them alone. This and other similar little features have had a great role in giving Messenger the reach it has today.
And of course, Facebook hasn’t been averse to copying stuff others originally came up with. For instance, the company copied Snapchat’s Stories feature to come up with its own Messenger Day and believe it or not, the service has already caused a significant increase in engagement. The fact of the matter is that the messenger app now offers users a lot more and makes it much easier for them to stay engaged. And that is why folks, Facebook’s Messenger application has continued growing apace.
