WhatsApp crosses 30M users in India; inks deal with Tata Docomo

Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has entered into a partnership with Tata Docomo, wherein the telco will offer unlimited WhatsApp usage to its subscribers at Rs 15 and Rs 30 for 15 and 30 days respectively. To subscribe to the pack, Tata Docomo prepaid subscribers will have to dial *123# from their mobile phones.

This is WhatsApp's second such deal with a telecom operator in the country. The first one was with Reliance (in October 2012), where the telecom major was offering unlimited WhatsApp usage for a month for Rs 16 to its GSM subscribers.

A report by Medianama also cited Neeraj Arora, head-business development, WhatsApp, stating that the instant messenger has crossed 30 million monthly active users in India. Just last month, the company had announced that it had 25 million monthly active users in India, meaning that it added an additional 5 million monthly active users in less than a month. Talking to CNBC TV18, Arora had earlier stated that messenger is currently processing up to 18 billion messages per day across 100 countries on 750 mobile networks.

In October 2013, Japanese mobile messaging app Line claimed to have crossed the 10 million users mark in India (one-third of what Whatsapp is claiming), within three months of officially launching in the country. Note that the app was available in the respective app stores even before that.