| Updated:
Facebook Messenger adds 300m users since messaging removed from main app
Over half a billion people use Facebook Messenger every month, the social media site revealed today.
The mobile instant messaging app now has over 500m monthly users following the company’s decision to remove the messaging feature from the main Facebook app.
Combined with its other instant messaging service, WhatsApp, Facebook now has around 1.1bn monthly active messengers.
Back in April, when Facebook removed messaging from its main app, the tech giant said it only had around 200m monthly active users of Messenger. The huge growth in the intervening period comes at a rough average of 1.49m new users per day.
When Mark Zuckerberg was asked why Facebook had "forced" users to install Messenger, the young billionaire responded last week: “We believe that messaging is one of the few things that people actually do more than social networking.”
Earlier this year, Facebook completed the $19bn takeover of WhatsApp. The app has over 600m users.
Peter Martinazzi, Facebook’s director of product management, said today:
Messaging is an important part of how people stay connected and since Messenger launched in 2011 we’ve been passionate about giving people a faster and more expressive way to communicate.This is an exciting milestone but with a half billion people relying on Messenger to communicate and connect, it is also a reminder that there is so much left for us to do.
However, Zuckerberg and Facebook don’t seem too bothered about monetising their mammoth multitude of messengers just yet.
Last month the Facebook founder said he had “no plans” for revenue from WhatsApp. He has said Facebook will “first focus on connecting 1bn people, reaching the full potential before aggressively turning them into new businesses. I can’t think of that many other companies or products that have multiple lines of products that are on track to connect 1bn people."