WhatsApp may soon touch 500 million users in India despite new privacy policy, claims report

WhatsApp was launched in India in mid-2010 and soon became the most popular messaging app in the country, reaching 400 million users by mid-2019. The app may soon reach 500 million users in India and is still being used by people in the country, despite the new privacy policies in place. More than 95 per cent of WhatsApp’s monthly active users in India use the app every day, and almost all of its user base checks the app once a week, according to App Annie, a mobile insight firm.

WhatsApp and its new privacy policy slated to go into effect from February 8, 2021, are causing users to look for alternative apps. The new terms of service require users to comply with updates that allow WhatsApp to process user data. It also involves how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage WhatsApp chats. WhatsApp has issued a statement saying the new policy will in no way access personal chats and will solely be used for businesses. This has caused anxiety among people using the app.

The data which was first procured by TechCrunch notes that in December 2020 YouTube had 425 million monthly active users on Android phones and tablets in India, while WhatsApp had 422 million monthly active users on Android in India. However, when iOS devices are taken into consideration, WhatsApp still tops the chart in India, with 459 million active users followed by YouTube with 452 million users.

According to the report, Google and Chrome apps have also surpassed over 400 million monthly active users in India in recent months. Facebook’s app had about 325 million monthly active users in India in December 2020.

Where traction is concerned, messaging apps Signal and Telegram have witnessed nearly 4 million downloads in India since the pop-ups about WhatsApp’s new terms of service started showing up for users when they open the app, according to Sensor Tower.

Signal has seen 2.3 million new downloads between January 6 and January 10, while Telegram had 1.5 million new downloads during the same period. WhatsApp’s downloads fell by 35 per cent during the same period, with 1.3 million new downloads between January 6 and 10.

Both Google and Facebook have invested in Jio Platforms and made multi-million dollar deals in the Mukesh Ambani-led company. Jio has 400 million subscribers in India. While Google has an ongoing deal to roll out Android-powered 2G smartphones in India in early 2021, Facebook works with Jio through the Jio Mart Platform, which uses WhatsApp’s payment method.