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As of the second quarter of 2025, WhatsApp usage was highest in Africa and Latin America. Among the markets observed, Ghana recorded the largest share of its digital population using the mobile messaging platform, at **** percent. In contrast, the app was far less popular in Asia, particularly in Japan, where only *** percent of internet users had used WhatsApp in the past month.

WhatsApp usage worldwide

As of February 2025, WhatsApp counted roughly two billion global monthly active users. The Facebook-owned mobile messaging service is particularly popular in mobile-first countries, with more than million downloads during the fourth quarter of 2024 in India alone. However, after the app’s 2021 controversial privacy update, ** percent of users in the country have intended to drastically reduce their WhatsApp usage and start using other communication channels, like SMS, e-mails, or migrate to WhatsApp competitors Telegram and Signal.

WhatsApp privacy update woes

WhatsApp’s major privacy policy update announced on January 4, 2021 was not well received by users worldwide. The most controversial aspect of the update saw WhatsApp requesting users to give permission to share data like mobile phone numbers and locations with its parent company Facebook or stop using the app altogether. As a result, WhatsApp faced a *** million U.S. dollars fine from the Data Protection Commission for not respecting Europe’s GDPR, as well as a ** euros fine in Turkey for privacy rules violations.

Subsequently, many users chose to migrate towards competing messaging platforms like Telegram and Signal. During the first quarter of 2021, Telegram downloads worldwide spiked, reaching million downloads in the Asia-Pacific region. Similarly, Signal reached ** million installs in January 2021, up by more than **** percent compared to the previous month.