App Annie
Yesterday, Facebook confirmed it bought messaging app WhatsApp for $19 billion. The app is used by 450 million people who talk with anyone all over the world free of charge. Once you download the app, it's free to use for one year before you have to pay $0.99 for each additional year.
This map from App Annie, a marketing and analytics platform for apps, was part of a report explaining 2013's biggest app trends. It compiled data based on revenue from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store and showed the top five messaging apps used in each country.
One of the big reason's behind Facebook's huge investment in WhatsApp is that it wants to gain a foothold in other countries where Facebook messaging isn't very popular, especially in South America, Europe, and Africa.
However, Asia is a bit of an issue for WhatsApp: apps like LINE, WeChat, and KakaoTalk are already immensely popular there and provide many of the same services Facebook does.
While Facebook wants to obtain global domination over messaging, WhatsApp still faces a big threat from Skype. Microsoft's voice communication platform is used by 300 million people, is very popular in the U.S. and Europe but the recent infusion of cash from Facebook could propel the app to the top.