Facebook-owned WhatsApp hits 1 billion users

Facebook-owned smartphone messaging service WhatsApp has hit the billion-user mark, according to the leading social network's chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. "One billion people now use WhatsApp," Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page. "There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people." Google's free email service, Gmail, is the latest of the Internet giant's offerings to crest the billion-user mark, chief Sundar Pichai said Monday during an earnings call. The ranks of people using WhatsApp have more than doubled since California-based Facebook bought the service for $19 billion in late 2014, according to Zuckerberg. "That's nearly one-in-seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family," the WhatsApp team said in a blog post. AFP