Normally adding 200 million users in 8 months to a product that already has a billion would reduce the average engagement, but most apps don’t have Facebook..
Normally adding 200 million users in 8 months to a product that already has a billion would reduce the average engagement, but most apps don’t have Facebook Messenger’s network effect. Now with 1.2 billion monthly active users , “we increased engagement massively in terms of number of messages sent per active user. We had double-digit growth percentage-wise” Facebook’s head of Messenger David Marcus tells me.
Despite its bots not living up to the hype, Messenger had another banner year. It grew just a bit slower, since last time it got from 800 million to 1 billion users in just six months. Its daily US iOS App Annie download rank is up from a year ago, though a little down from a high point in June. But Marcus says the chat app is transcending being where people “find their Facebook friends they don’t have a phone number for.” For some it’s become “a primary communications channel.”
According to Sensor Tower, worldwide iOS and Android downloads of Facebook Messenger grew 5.66% from 145.3 million in Q1 2016 to 153.5M in Q1 2017.
Now Messenger is working to become more than just the most popular SMS replacement in the Western world.
