Popular mobile messaging app WhatsApp has crossed 25 million monthly active users in India, says Neeraj Arora, business development head, WhatsApp in an interview to CNBC TV18. This is up from 20 million monthly active users in August 2013, indicating that WhatsApp has added five million monthly active users in just three months. Globally, WhatsApp had claimed to have 300 million monthly active users in August 2013. Arora also mentioned that their partnership with Reliance Communications (RCOM) has worked "phenomenally well", although he didn't provide any specific information on this. WhatsApp had inked its first and only telco deal with RCOM last October, to launch a 'WhatsApp plan' for all Reliance GSM subscribers, wherein they got unlimited WhatsApp usage for Rs 16 per month. (Also read: On Whatsapp, Its Telco Relationships In India & Other IMs) Interestingly, Idea Cellular had also mentioned during its earnings call that more than 4.3 million Idea connections had accessed WhatsApp in the last quarter (Q2-FY14), although strangely it had also mentioned that free messaging apps like WhatsApp were a threat to its non-data VAS revenues, whereas it is these same free applications which are driving the data usage on these networks, thereby growing Idea Cellular's data VAS revenues. Other Players? While none of the WhatsApp competitors have disclosed its monthly active users base for India yet, which we feel is a true measure for a messaging app, Japanese mobile messaging application LINE had claimed to have hit 10 million registered users mark in India last month. Bharti-Softbank (BSB) backed Hike had also claimed to have 5 million registered users…
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