FACEBOOK, COMPETITOR?

WhatsApp has overtaken Facebook as the leading social messaging service on mobile network, according to a report.

A survey of nearly 4,000 smartphone users in five countries found that 44 per cent use WhatsApp at least once a week, whereas just 35 per cent use Facebook messenger.

The report also confirmed that social messaging apps – including WeChat, Twitter, BBM and Skype – are the dominant way in which people communicate on their phone.

It found that 86 per cent use social messaging daily, while 73 per cent use their phones for voice calls, 75 per cent use SMS messages, and 60 per cent use email.

The study was based on the response of 3,759 smartphone users in the US, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and China, between October 25 and November 10 of this year.

In April, WhatsApp’s chief executive Jan Koum claimed that the service now has more users than Twitter and carries more messages than Facebook.

He said WhatsApp carries as many as 20 billion messages per day, double Facebook’s daily message traffic.

Although WhatsApp is seen as more of an internet-based threat to text messaging than as a introduced in 2009.Koum said WhatsApp, based in Silicon Valley, will not follow Facebook and Twitter in carrying advertising, however.

The app charges a 99-cent annual subscription on Android and other smartphone operating systems.