WhatsApp is Finally Starting to Dominate in the United States. Here’s Why.

Suddenly, everyonein the U.S. seems to be using WhatsApp. The app — once seen as an international phenomenon — grew daily users in the U.S. by 9% in 2023, according to Apptopia, and is gaining steam among the iPhone crowd. 

For many, it’s become the default messenger, a drama-free alternative to Apple and Android’s blue vs. green bubble wars, and a fast way to keep in touch with contacts worldwide. If the current trend holds, WhatsApp may even threaten Apple Messages as the country’s most popular messaging app, a once unthinkable prospect.

WhatsApp’s U.S. rise didn’t happen by accident, though. It was part luck, timing, and strategy. Here’s a look at why the world’s most popular messaging app is finally surging in the United States:

Apple Opens the Door

Tim Cook handed Meta a gift by insisting that Apple’s Messages synced poorly with Android. As text messages grew richer — with reactions and special effects — the annoyance of using SMS apps across the two platforms grew. Green and blue text bubbles were tolerable, but seeing “X Friend Liked Your Message” in plain text, with no thumbs up, made traditional messaging apps less appealing for everyone. People started looking for something compatible across platforms — iPhone users included — and they found WhatsApp. Today, most of WhatsApp’s users in the U.S. are iPhone owners, the company tells me, showing that Apple’s loyal customers are moving away from its default software toward something that works seamlessly with Android.

The Rise of Large Messaging Groups

WhatsApp’s become indispensable for large messaging groups, which have overwhelminglty replaced email chains. WhatsApp groups for parents of schoolkids are now a major WhatsApp use case, for instance. Parents use the groups to keep tabs on their kids, coordinate events, and gossip. When they become friends, they use WhatsApp to communicate privately, boosting the app’s usage. WhatsApp’s cross-OS compatibility is a major reason why it’s so useful for groups. It’s also built infrastructure into the platform — like subgroups — to facilitate growth.

Increasing International Travel

A record number of Americans took vacations in 2023, with many traveling abroad. Hot spots like Mexico City, Santorini, and the Amalfi Coast were overrun with American tourists, a product of stimulus cash crossed with a desire for revenge travel. Outside the States, these travelers learned that WhatsApp is a vital communication tool for people and businesses. And after the international introduction, they kept using it, keeping in touch with contacts abroad and seeking to connect with U.S. businesses in a similar way.

A Super App for Business Communication 

Businesses love speaking with customers through WhatsApp. The app is more reliable than the inbox, less cluttered, and less invasive than a phone call. Outside the U.S., people buy cars, reserve tables at restaurants, and inquire about products and services through WhatsApp. Now, businesses in the U.S. are adopting that functionality. The app’s daily business users increased by 80% in the U.S. in 2023 after a 122% jump in 2022, per Apptopia. Knowing that businesses are responsive on WhatsApp keeps people coming back. 

Energy Moving Away From Social and Into Messaging Apps

A good deal of sharing that once took place publicly — within the Facebook News Feed, for instance — now occurs within messaging apps. After seeing the early stages of this move, Meta made a ‘pivot to privacy’ in the late 2010s. The company wanted to facilitate more sharing within messaging apps, and that’s what happened. As Facebook’s growth has effectively flatlined in the U.S., WhatsApp is taking some of that growth. New features like Channels (I’m participating) have added familiar broadcast sharing into the app, just with less virality (and that’s probably a good thing).

A Solid Desktop App

WhatsApp rewrote its desktop app for Mac and introduced a brand new desktop app for Windows within the past two years. It’s table stakes now, but being able to communicate on desktop is an important factor in the app’s rise in the U.S.

WhatsApp is Trying

After years of fast international expansion, WhatsApp is making an effort to grow in the United States. This includes its first major brand campaign in 2022, another in 2023, and perhaps more to come this year. 

Meta wants this to work, sees momentum, and is pushing hard to capitalize. And so perhaps this ends with WhatsApp assuming the leadership role in the U.S. that it currently occupies globally. The possibility is less farfetched than it was in even the recent past.

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This week on Big Technology Podcast: Will AI Really Take Our Jobs? And If So, Then What? — With Albert Wenger

Albert Wenger is a partner at Union Square Ventures, and author of The World After Capital. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a frank conversation about whether AI will lead to job loss and what to do about it. In an unusual setup, the journalist in this conversation (Alex) argues that we have less to worry about AI automating jobs than the popular narrative, and the VC (Wenger) makes the case that it will definitely happen and how we should adjust. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Wenger's five year experiment with UBI.

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