Messaging app WhatsApp now has more users than Twitter,
company founder and CEO Jan Koum said at the AllThingsD Dive Into Mobile
conference in New York.
Declining to cite a specific figure, Koum said WhatsApp has
more than 200 million monthly active users who generate an average of 8 billion
inbound messages and 12 billion outbound messages per day. Twitter has 200
million monthly active users.
The WhatsApp Messenger, which is available for iPhone,
BlackBerry, Android and Nokia, allows users to exchange messages without having
to pay for SMS.
WhatsApp bigger than Twitter, says CEO; denies Google
takeover rumours
Jan Koum also rejected turning WhatsApp into a broader
platform that would include games and advertising.
After providing the service for free since its founding in
2009, WhatsApp is gradually phasing in an annual fee of 99 cents. Koum denied
rumours that he is in talks to sell WhatsApp to Google.
"Our goal is to build a sustainable, independent
company. We want to build a business," he said at the Dive Into Mobile
Conference, where he also ruled-out abandoning WhatsApp's policy against
running ads.
"Mobile and messaging is the only thing we do,"
Koum said, rejecting the notion of turning WhatsApp into a broader platform
that would include games, advertising and other features.
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