Global WhatsApp users will top 3.1 billion in 2024, says the Reading, UK-based firm. It describes WhatsApp Business as the most in-demand rich messaging channel among brands and businesses, and is now communicating with over 2 billion WhatsApp users. This is according to new research from business messaging specialist, Mobilesquared.
Mobilesquared’s latest databook and report, WhatsApp business messaging traffic & spend forecasts, by country & region (2019-24), estimates WhatsApp Business will experience unprecedented growth of more than 5,400% among medium and large businesses looking to use its application program interface (API). It will, it is estimated, grow from just 992 at the end of 2019 to almost 55,000 by 2024.
WhatsApp Business APIs are currently available from more than 60 partners, and permit inbound traffic (such as customer care enquiries initiated by customers via WhatsApp), and outbound traffic (such as updates and alerts sent to customers who have already contacted a business via WhatsApp).
Mobilesquared predicts the majority of the business messaging traffic generated over WhatsApp will be inbound traffic (also referred to as P2A or person-2-application), making WhatsApp Business the go-to messaging channel for customer care.
Total enterprise spend on WhatsApp Business by medium and large businesses is forecast to grow from US$38.7 million (€35.5 million) in 2019 to $3.6 billion (€3.3 billion) by 2024, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 151%.
The 10 markets with the spend (India, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, USA, Argentina, UK, Russia and Italy) together accounted for 68% of the total spend in 2019.
Report findings are based on research involving all the major omni-channel messaging providers. “What we are starting to identify from our research across SMS, RCS and now WhatsApp is that different messaging channels will be used for particular use cases and services,” says Gavin Patterson, chief data analyst at Mobilesquared.
“WhatsApp is the only rich messaging channel businesses currently want to know about, but that is in the context of P2A communications between a consumer and a brand,” says Patterson.
“What we expect to emerge in the coming years is that outbound A2P traffic will centre on SMS and RCS, with inbound P2A traffic split between WhatsApp, ABC and RCS – with WhatsApp likely to become a dominant force.”
The databook & report also covers the WhatsApp Business App for small and micro businesses, as well as providing a breakdown of WhatsApp users by country.
Mobilesquared believes there were 5.25 million small and micro businesses using the free WhatsApp business app at the end of 2019, and this number will rise to almost 7 million by the end of the period.
What makes WhatsApp so attractive to businesses is its scale. Mobilesquared forecasts the total number of WhatsApp users will grow from 1.96 billion to 3.1 billion over the forecast period
As of end-2019, India was the large WhatsApp market with 432 million users, followed by Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and the USA. These markets combined accounted for 41% of total global users.
“By the end of this year, WhatsApp users will account for almost 1 in every 2 smartphones worldwide and, by 2024, that figure will be almost 3 in every 5,” adds Patterson.
Latin America will have the highest WhatsApp users as % of total smartphones rising from around 80% now to almost 95% in 2024. Following Latin America, the regions with the highest penetration of WhatsApp users as a % of smartphone users in 2024 will be West Europe, Africa, and East Europe.
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus
