And while the results were promising, the lack of a dedicated platform proved difficult for most of them. Many publishers started offering news alerts through WhatsApp. Publishers have also been experimenting with other messaging apps. An approach that proves successful some publishers attract each month around 20 million unique visitors to its Discover channels. For its Discover feature, it is working with around 20 media brands, such as BuzzFeed, Vice and National Geographic, who publish content – mostly video but also short articles and photos – tailored to the platform and its audience. Spiegel understood that you’ll have to cooperate with brands and publishers if you want to make money. Official user stats are not available but it is believed to have around 200 million users, who watch an amazing 7 billion videos each day, compared to the 8 billion that are viewed on Facebook daily. The messaging app, founded by 25-year-old Evan Spiegel, is especially popular among teens but is also gaining traction among other age groups. Snapchat is one of the apps fueling this transition.

And almost 70% of worldwide online referrals now comes from so-called “dark social”, which includes messaging apps, email and private browsing that can’t be accurately tracked. On average, WhatsApp users spend nearly 200 minutes each week using the service. Many teenagers now spend more time sending instant messages on their smartphones than using the traditional broadcast social networks. At the end of 2015, messaging apps have surpassed traditional social networks. Messaging apps are now named as the “new social media”. There is a transition happening from broadcast social media, such as Twitter – where you can reach a large number of people or the whole world essentially – to the narrowcast equivalent which revolves around your (closest) friends and happens within messaging apps. Let’s have a look at how publishers are using messaging apps now, and how they might in the future.

Messaging app users are expected to grow to 3.6 billion within a couple of years, so it’s no surprise publishers are trying to take advantage of its potential. WhatsApp (1 billion) and Facebook Messenger (900 million) take the lead, followed by WeChat (700 million) and LINE (215 million). Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp now process 60 billion messages a day, and over 2.5 billion people have at least one messaging app installed.

Facebook messenger vs whatsapp 2018