WhatsApp processes record 18B messages on New Year's Eve
Mobile messaging service's new record eclipses its old one of 10 billion messages sent one day back in August.
WhatsApp has a message for its users -- a lot of them.
The mobile messaging service announced today that it set a personal record on New Year's Eve, processing 18 billion messages on the last day of the year. The company said it delivered 7 billion inbound messages and 11 billion outbound messages, surpassing its previous record of 10 billion messages processed in one day back in August.
On Dec 31st we had a new record day: 7B msgs inbound, 11B msgs outbound = 18 billion total messages processed in one day! Happy 2013!!!
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) January 2, 2013
In comparison, Apple revealed in October that its iMessage text service had delivered about 300 billion texts sent by iOS users during the previous 12 months -- an average of less than a billion a day.
WhatsApp's growth was rumored to have attracted acquisition interest from Facebook -- a TechCrunch report that WhatsApp called "a rumor and not factually accurate."
Founded in 2009, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company provides a smartphone app for Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone that delivers messages, as well as images and audio and video messages. Its messaging app allows people to text without paying for SMS.