Amid promises of privacy, WhatsApp reaches 2 billion user mark

Over two billion users now use WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned multimedia messenger app. The platform took two years to double its users since it breached the 1 billion user mark in 2018.

As of July 2019, WhatsApp has more than 400 million users registered in India, which is an important market for the company.

Last month, WhatsApp had it will launch its payments app in India in the next six months. WhatsApp Payments was launched in India in 2018 on a pilot basis. However, the Pegasys software incident in 2019 delayed the final rollout.

The payments app has now reportedly received approval from the National Payments Council of India and the Reserve Bank of India to introduce the payments app to the public.

WhatsApp also said that the conversations on the platform are secured with end-to-end encryption similar to a digital locker keeping hackers at bay.

"We know that the more we connect, the more we have to protect. As we conduct more of our lives online, protecting our conversations is more important than ever," a statement from the company said.

Founded in 2009 by former Yahoo employees Jan Koum and Brian Acton, WhatsApp was acquired by Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion. It continues to operate as a separate app with a focus on developing a messaging service.

WhatsApp, which started as an alternative to text messages, has introduced other media such as photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice and video calls.