More than a Billion People are Using Facebook Messenger

One billion people are using the Facebook Messenger app. That’s about one out of every seven people in the entire world–although usage density is probably much greater in the United States. What I find interesting is the number of people I encounter who simply refuse to install the Messenger app, or the number of people who don’t understand that Facebook Messenger is just a mobile app version of the Messages function that any Facebook user can access from the social network’s website.

Facebook announced today that its Messenger app has crossed the one billion user mark. WhatsApp—another messaging platform also owned by Facebook—crossed that threshold earlier this year. In spite of the apparent success of Messenger, though, there is still a fair amount of confusion about what it is and reluctance by users to install the app.

A while back Facebook made the decision to separate out the Messenger function from the primary Facebook app on mobile devices. I had assumed it was a precursor to merging Messenger with WhatsApp—something I imagine Facebook will want to do at some point. I am sure that there is crossover between the two from people who have both a Messenger account and a WhatsApp account (like just about everyone in my family), so it wouldn’t be two billion total—but Facebook could have a virtual monopoly on the messaging space if it combined the two platforms together.

Facebook shared a variety of interesting statistics along with the news of the one billion user milestone. Here are some of the highlights:

• The most downloaded sticker pack for Facebook Messenger is from The Angry Birds Movie
• Facebook Messenger users send 22 million animated GIFs per day – an average of 254 GIFs per second
• There have been 1.2 billion games of Basketball played within Facebook Messenger – the equivalent of 975,000 NBA seasons if you count all of the games played between all of the teams
• Facebook Messenger users have played 250 million games of Soccer in the app
• 360 million Valentines were sent in the Facebook Messenger app and 300 million flower stickers were sent on Mother’s Day

Crossing the one billion user mark is a huge milestone, and all of those statistics are impressive, but there still seems to be a lot of confusion and a fair amount of backlash over the Messenger app.

Read the full story on Forbes: Facebook Messenger Crosses Billion User Mark Despite Confusion.