Market Intelligence Insights

In this update to our popular mobile messaging app post, there are a few noteworthy changes. Telegram has dropped off the map as there are no longer any countries for which it is the leading messaging app. There has been a further swing towards WhatsApp Messenger at the expense of Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free. Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free lost its pole position in seven countries while WhatsApp Messenger took the top spot in eight new territories. In total, WhatsApp Messenger is now the leading mobile messaging app in 112 countries while Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free is the leading app in 57 countries. Both WhatsApp Messenger and Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free are owned by Facebook.

With almost all changes coming from users preferring one Facebook-owned messaging service for another there was one nice win for Viber Messenger which took over from Messenger – Text and Video Chat for Free to become the leading messaging app in Bulgaria. That made Viber Messenger the leading app in 11 countries, followed by LINE: Free Calls & Messages, WeChat, imo free video calls and chat and KakaoTalk: Free Calls & Text, each listed as the top messaging app in 3 or fewer countries.



Country Drill Down – Current Installs

While there were only a small number of countries where the lead changed hands, even in countries where the leading app did not change there were some variations in the percentage of current installs when comparing December 2018 with the same month a year earlier. In most cases the current install rate declined slightly indicating that even the leading apps are facing tough competition in each territory.



Country Drill Down – DAUs

As the proportion of Android devices with the leading mobile messaging app has declined slightly, so too has the proportion of daily active users (DAUs) in a number of countries. While there are still major differences in the dependence of users in different countries on their mobile messaging app, we saw that in most of the countries we looked at, usage had declined slightly between December 2017 and December 2018.



This was just a sample of the insights you can find in our latest Digital Trends 2020 – US Telecom Industry report, which covers everything you need to know about the US Telecom industry.