New Delhi: Facebook Inc. has begun the New Year with a bang, reporting that 800 million monthly active users (MAUs) use the Facebook Messenger app every month—roughly 11% of the world’s population!
The company announced this in a blog post on Thursday. “It’s a good number, but we believe we have so much more opportunity ahead of us, and these are still the early days of Messenger,” David Marcus, VP of Messaging Products, wrote.
That is a staggering figure even by Facebook standards!

Consider Messenger’s growth trajectory in the last two years. Facebook reported 500 million MAUs in November 2014, 600 million in March 2015 and 700 million in June 2015. The stellar user growth makes Messenger the fastest growing app of 2015, as per consumer research company Nielsen. Its December 2015 data showed that Facebook Messenger had more than 96 million average unique users each month, which was the higher year-over-year change. The full report can be read here.


The growth also clearly indicates that Facebook’s decision to roll out Messenger as a standalone app (preventing users from messaging through the main Facebook app) has paid off immensely.

Highlights of Messenger in 2015

The biggest move for Messenger came in March 2015 when the company launched the Messenger Platform, which enables developers to easily build apps that integrate with the product to become a one-stop shop to communicate with people and businesses across the world.

Over the last 12 months, the company has made concerted efforts to make the app even faster, and introduced a flurry of features like video calling and the ability to customize conversations with colours, nicknames and emojis. Additionally, with Businesses on Messenger, the company aims at developing an entire ecosystem where all transactions happen within Messenger.

These changes will let users book their next flight, or send and receive money to and from friends and family, share photos easily, search for restaurants and, of course, simply chat. All this can be achieved by M, a digital virtual assistant that uses artificial intelligence to execute tasks.

Last month, Facebook Messenger also tied up with cab aggregator Uber in the US, allowing users to order Uber rides from within the messaging app as part of a push to turn the service into a commercial platform. Uber customers can both order from the ride-sharing service and make a payment from within the Messenger app. The company’s focus was on transforming Messenger into a business portal that lets consumers and businesses connect, interact, and, eventually, carry out their transactions seamlessly.

Of course, Facebook is not the first company to integrate with companies like Uber. A number of messaging apps have been focusing on driving online and offline purchases within their platforms. For example, Chinese web giant Tencent’s WeChat messaging app with 600 MAUs lets users order taxis, food, buy movie tickets, and make purchases in stores. The WeChat model is what Facebook is essentially looking to emulate with its Messenger app.

Similarly, Snapchat in the US added the ability to send money to friends over the last year.

The roadmap for Messenger in 2016

Marcus has grand plans for Messenger, as outlined in the blog:

Don’t need a phone number any more

The beauty of Messenger is that it lets you send messages to anyone on Facebook, without having the need to know their phone number. Marcus explains that SMS and texting came to the fore in the time of flip phones. But now with smartphones, we have computers in our pockets that allow us to not only send text messages but much more. “You can also send stickers, photos, videos, voice clips, GIFs, your location, and money to people. You can make video and voice calls while at the same time not needing to know someone’s phone number. You don’t need to have a Facebook account to use Messenger anymore, and it’s also a cross platform experience—so you can pick up where you left off whether you’re on a desktop computer, a tablet, or your phone.”

Threads are the new apps

Since chat is at the centre of mobile, Messenger wants all business transactions to be carried out from chat threads. Marcus explains how interacting with businesses or services will become easier if done in “one place that has the context of your last interactions, as well as your identity – no need to ever log in – rather than downloading apps that you’ll never use again and jumping around from one app to another.” The company is still testing this out but early tests in 2015 with brands are showing that interactions will happen more and more in your Messenger threads.

A place to socialize and have fun

Messenger is a great forum to share, chat, debate, discuss, and inform and with its vast array of tools at its disposal it allows the user to personalize the conversation. And one-to-one messages aren’t the only option. Groups on Messenger are the very best way to coordinate with friends, family, co-workers and others to make plans or even just to make sure you don’t miss anything when you can’t all be together in person.

Innovating and Inventing

Testing M, the Facebook-powered digital virtual assistant, powered by human-trained AI, is a case in point. While its still early days for M, it’s clear that Facebook has hedged its bets on artificial intelligence. “The growing AI capabilities are bringing unparalleled convenience to simple, every day tasks like booking a restaurant, sending flowers, and making plans. There will be more innovative developments to come from Messenger this year.” This also ties in with founder Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year resolution to build an artificially intelligent assistant to help run his house and assist him at work.It will be “kind of like Jarvis in Iron Man” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing his 2016 objective.

Messenger’s road map for 2016 may be ambitious but the company knows that the app is not the only weapon in its arsenal. Facebook also owns WhatsApp that notched up 900 million MAUs in September 2015, and photo-sharing app Instagram that hit the 400 million in the same month, while Facebook itself went past the 1.5 billion mark in November.

So are you among this 800 million people already using Facebook messenger app? If not, what are you still waiting for 

SOURCE: http://www.oddytech.com.ng/2016/01/facebook-messanger-users-over-800.html?m=0