WhatsApp now has 500 million regular, active users around the world, the free mobile messaging service being acquired by Facebook said.<\/p>\n
That is up from an estimated 450 million as of late February, as the service’s reach expanded rapidly in countries including Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia.<\/p>\n
WhatsApp said Tuesday on its blog that its users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos a day.<\/p>\n
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced in February that his social network is acquiring WhatsApp for $19 billion.<\/p>\n
The stock and cash purchase marries WhatsApp’s steadily growing user base with Facebook’s 1.2 billion active users.<\/p>\n
The huge price tag raised eyebrows but Zuckerberg told the Mobile World Congress in Spain days after the announcement that he believes WhatsApp is actually worth much more.<\/p>\n
He argued that there are very few services that reach so many millions of people in the world.<\/p>\n
The acquisition would be Facebook’s largest ever.<\/p>\n
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