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The instant messaging application has added another 100 million unique, active users in the first four months of 2014 alone.
That brings its global user total to over 800 million individual users each month.
That’s a whole lot of people typing on their phones.
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Given the application had just over half that amount of users when Facebook bought it over just over a year ago, the growth level has been nothing short of phenomenal.
The news was shared with the world in a Facebook post by Whatsapp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum. In his post he made sure to remind the world that active users and registered users are not the same, i.e. all of the 800 million users cited actually use the service.
It seems Facebook’s faith in the company was more than well-founded – Mark Zuckerberg’s original social media behemoth acquired Whatsapp last year in a deal worth an eye-watering €18 billion.
Whatsapp CEO Jan Koum AP / Press Association Images
AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images
Whatsapp users currently send more than 30 billion messages per day via the app. Mind-boggling.
As popular as instant messaging apps like Whatsapp are, not everyone is enamored with the encrypted nature of their services (i.e. outside agencies can’t decode them, making them very useful for the likes of terrorist cells).
In January, British Prime Minister David Cameron asserted that should his party win the next general election he would seek to ban any services that could not be accessed by security services even with a warrant.
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I’m not a Shinnerbot, whatever bottoms have to do with being a Shinner I don’t know, but I think on an island this small 1 railway company is ample. Also while you’re on the subject I’d love a United Ireland. So bingo to you Ciarán. ;)
Shinnerbot?
Aye whatever, but just to entertain you you here’s a map of the current rail network, as you can see the entire border region with the exception of louth is sans rail services, this is most likely a result of partition and lazy Irish government.
Cross border rail my eye.
west on track has been pushing the sligo-galway-limerick re-opening for years and struggling to get help from the government. the track is already there and there is demand for a western rail corridor re-opening but so far only part of it is operational. http://www.westontrack.com/
Definitely something needs to be done. When a ticket bought in Northern Ireland is about half the price for the same ticket bought in Dublin, there has to be something wrong with the way that the service is run
As far as I’m concerned anything that integrates the ROI further into the 6 Co’s is a good thing regardless of financial or other considerations. Its only a small thing but it will make the inevitable reunification run all the smoother. The more of these initiatives that link us with the North the better. Inch by Inch we can convince the unionists that it makes more sense to be 1 united country as is only right & proper. The more we integrate with the 6 Co’s the harder it will make for the unionists to resist reunification. After all “Money talks & Bullshit walk”
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