Lionel Sujay Vailshery
Research expert covering cloud computing and emerging tech industries
Instant Messaging (IM) apps in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - Statistics & Facts
Instant Messaging (IM) apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat are important methods of communication in three countries who actively use (mobile) Internet. In 2018, the number of Internet users in the Netherlands was roughly 16 million, whereas Luxembourg had a total of roughly 500,000 users. Of the three countries, Luxembourg used the Internet the most. As of 2018, the total number of Internet users as share of the total population in Luxembourg was 98 percent, with the roughly ten million users in Belgium representing 89 percent of the total population. The Benelux region also has a high smartphone penetration rate: in 2017, 88 percent of Dutch consumers aged 13 years and older owned a smartphone. Smartphone ownership in Belgium was highest among 18 to 34-year-olds, at more than 90 percent in 2017.
