More messages are now sent via messaging app WhatsApp than through SMS texts, according to data from The Economist. WhatsApp handles 30 billion messages each day, compared to 20 billion sent through SMS texts.
The data hints at the growing significance of messaging apps in the tech world. The ten most popular messaging apps have a total of more than 3 billion accounts. To guarantee a large share of the market, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $22 billion last year.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app with more than 600 million users. Facebook messenger and WeChat follow, each with more than 400 million users.
Last year, WhatsApp users sent more than 7 trillion messages.
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Write to Justin Worland at justin.worland@time.com