We’ve summarized some amazing, slightly shocking, statistics about Messenger, not just for thrills, but because they paint a picture of the future of digital marketing. This list includes stats on WhatsApp and Instagram as well.
If you forget every number in this article, you’ll walk away with a profound understanding of three really important things. They are:
Here we go…
Q: How many monthly active users are there on Facebook Messenger?
A: 1.3 billion people use Facebook Messenger each month.
This number counts individual people, not just active accounts. One person may have multiple accounts, so the actual number of Facebook Messenger is much higher. (Facebook has not disclosed the number of active accounts.) For comparison’s sake, Facebook has over 2 billion daily active users. It’s likely that the number of Messenger users will outpace the number of Facebook users, as universal social trends favor messaging over against broadcasting.
Q: What’s the most downloaded app of all time?
A: Facebook is number one. Followed by Facebook Messenger, number two.
So, yes, Facebook Messenger is kind of a big deal when it comes to total downloads. But take a look at the what else is in the top five most-downloaded apps of all time
Yes, that’s right. Facebook owns four of the five most-downloaded apps in the history of the world. And, as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger are integrated, Facebook will consolidate that market share into a white-hot unified whole.
Q: How fast is Facebook Messenger growing?
A: Messenger is adding users at a rate of over 600,000 per day.
Sorry, numbers people, that number is real, albeit a rough average. Messenger is growing incredibly fast.
Q: How popular, really, are Facebook’s messaging apps?
A: 85% of mobile messaging app users in the world use a Facebook messaging product.
There are over 3 billion mobile phone messaging app users worldwide. Of this number more than 1.6 billion use WhatsApp and 1.3 billion use Messenger. These numbers indicate the near-universal usage of Facebook messaging apps among messaging app users. Oh, and the number is skyrocketing. By 2021, the number is expected to be double that.
Q: What is the biggest messaging app in the U.S.?
A: Facebook Messenger is the leading messaging app in the United States.
Messenger dwarfs Snapchat’s user base (48.67 million) and is more popular in the United States than WhatsApp, which has 18.24 million users. (Source)
Q: How active are Facebook Messenger users?
A: Facebook Messenger users send over 10 billion messages a day.
Messenger’s users aren’t lazy when it comes to messaging. Their output is prolific, and that number of sent messages — 10 billion a day — is climbing.
Q: How does Facebook Messenger rank against other messaging apps?
A: Facebook Messenger has 116% more monthly active users in the United States than the nearest competitor, Snapchat.
To see the scale of its popularity, check out a comparative look at the top mobile messaging apps by monthly active users. Messenger outpaces the runner up by more than double.
Q: What about kids? Are they Messenger users?
A: There are 1.4 million Messenger Kids users.
Although it’s not monetized, Facebook does have a strong hold on a user demographic below the age of 13. Today’s minors are heavy users of mobile messaging, which can be a handy way for parents and kids to stay connected. (The 1.4 million Messenger Kids users are not included in the number of Messenger app users. Messenger Kids requires an entirely different app.)
Q: What percentage of the world’s population are regular Messenger users?
A: 11% of the world’s population use Facebook Messenger every month.
That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. (Source)
Q: What about Messenger conversations and new connections?
A: Every day, there are 260 million new conversations launched over Messenger.
This number includes messages that are started between businesses and individuals. We expect this number to grow as more businesses wise up to the marketing power of adding a Messenger chatbot to their website.
Q: How many photos are Messenger users sharing?
A: 17 billion photos are sent every month on Facebook Messenger.
That’s a lot of photos. Even though Messenger isn’t a photo-specific app, its user base is diehard photographers. By comparison, Instagram users share 2.8 billion photos per month. As it turns out, Messenger is a more popular photo-sharing app than the original photo-sharing app itself.
Q: How many active bots are in use on Messenger?
A: There are over 300,000 chatbots in use on Facebook Messenger.
When compared to the other mind-boggling numbers in this statistic list, that number is jaw-droppingly low. Messenger bots are marketers’ biggest opportunity, but its most underutilized asset. Business owners simply MUST engage customers at this level.
Q: How many developers interact with Facebook Messenger?
A: 200,000 developers have used the Messenger platform.
Two-hundred thousand chatbot developers is a lot, but that includes legions of individual developers working on solo projects, tinkering on the platform, or simply experimenting. The number of actual chatbot developers selling products to marketers is startlingly low. As time goes on, however, even this number will likely thin out as some larger bot developers acquire smaller ones, some fold, and others evolve.
Q: How many people overall use a Facebook product?
A: Over 3 billion people use at least one of Facebook’s apps.
These apps include Instagram, Whatsapp, and Messenger. All three of these with the exception of the Facebook app are messaging apps or have built-in messaging functionality. The three that do utilize messaging — Whatsapp, Instagram, and Messenger — are being merged into a single messaging platform likely by 2020.
Q: How does Facebook Messenger’s user acquisition rate compare with Facebook’s user acquisition rate?
A: Facebook user acquisition is at the lowest rate since 2015, but its messaging app user acquisition is higher than ever.
Facebook, the social media app, is experiencing a shrinking user count and its lowest growth rate in years. In spite of this, its messaging apps are on the rise. Facebook’s recent major shuffle indicates that the company is pushing the now-popular messaging apps in hopes to lift revenue. Historically, Facebook makes most of its money from the Facebook app, not the messaging apps.
Q: What about Instagram? How big is its user base?
A: 1 billion people use Instagram.
Latest statistics (from June 2018) show that Instagram has topped 1 billion monthly active users. This statistic indicates the sheer number of people who are, by default, users or owners of Instagram’s powerful messaging feature, which will be merged with WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger by 2020.
Q: How does the total number of Messaging app users compare with overall social media users?
A: Messaging Apps now have more users than social networks.
There are more people using messaging apps than social media now. The tipping point occurred a long time ago (digitally speaking), indicating an overall shift in user appetite for real-time interactive conversations as opposed to the News Feed style broadcasting method of earlier years.
Q: What percentage of businesses are using Messenger BOT Marketing?
A: Only 1% of businesses automatically engage with their customers via chatbot messaging.
Even though messaging apps are wildly popular, businesses are not taking advantage of it. A paltry 1 out of every 100 businesses is engaging their customers automatically or with BOTS. Note, however, that this statistic is just businesses that use chatbot messaging of any kind. The number of businesses using Facebook Messenger chatbots is far lower.
Q: What kind of engagement rates do businesses have using Messenger marketing?
A: Facebook Messenger marketing has 10-80 times better engagement than email.
Email has 5-10% open rates and a 1% clickthrough rate. This amounts to 1 clickthrough per 1,000 emails. Messenger, by contrast, averages 70-90% open rates and 20% clickthrough rates.
Q: What about the comparison between Facebook News Feed engagement and Messenger engagement?
A: Facebook Messenger marketing has 10-80x better engagement than organic posts on the Facebook News Feed.
Facebook’s News Feed is essentially dead. Marketers have extremely low visibility and engagement rates when using organic posts. Organic posts get 0-2% visibility and, at most, a 2% clickthrough rate. Messenger’s 80% open rates and 20% clickthrough rates make the News Feed seem appallingly useless.
Q: What kind of success are marketers having with Messenger ads?
A: Send to Messenger Facebook ads have the equivalent of a 100% conversion rate.
When you use a click-to-Messenger ad, everyone who clicks through to “Send Message” and accepts the invite is an automatic lead on Facebook Messenger. This amounts to a 100% conversion rate for a contact list goal completion. The leads you acquire are leads for life, meaning that you retain them in your contact list until they make the conscious and concerted effort to unsubscribe from your list.
Q: Are Messenger ads less expensive than conventional Facebook display ads?
A: Yes. Facebook Messenger Ads can reduce cost per lead by 30x-50x.
Facebook advertisers are used to high-cost spending for most ad campaigns. Conventional ads are crowded with competitors, driving bids sky-high. Click-to-Messenger ads, by contrast, have comparatively low costs, which means lower overall customer acquisition costs as well.
So I think you can see that Facebook Messenger BOTS are here to stay, growing every day and that if you are a Business Owner you must engage your customers through instant messaging channels like Messenger and WhatsApp or your customers will likely run to your competition. Be there for them now!
If you want to get a Messenger BOT for your business book a call with me at http://calendly.com/destroyer
~Mark