Sensor Tower data shows WhatsApp leads global apps with an 87% DAU/MAU ratio and 86% retention

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i find it funny that the stickiest consumer app is also the most difficult to monetize.

a company like fb that is the king of figuring out indirect monetization has yet to do it anywhere near insta for example.

what lessons do you take away from this fact?

Deedy@deedydas

WhatsApp may be the statistically best app we've ever made.

It's a product manager's dream with its unparalleled addictiveness (DAU / MAU) of 87% and stickiness (M1 retention) of 86%, both #1 in the world while having the #1 most monthly active users for any non preinstalled app of 2.7B users.

Here are the top 25 most used apps in the world by MAU on both these metrics. Some surprising observations: — There are now 15 1B+ user apps in the world, 8 by Google, 4 by Meta. — The 3 that aren't are TikTok, Telegram (!) and ChatGPT — Telegram has more users than Spotify, Pinterest, Netflix, Amazon, Snap! — ChatGPT's one month retention is #5 after WA, Instagram, Chrome and Youtube. 2yrs ago, it was been #20 by M1 retention — Shopee, a shopping app in southeast Asia, is huge and retains users better than Amazon!

Useful way to break down consumer businesses especially within certain categories (X vs Reddit vs Threads is a good one). It's shocking how few new apps have been able to break through in the past 10yrs.

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signüll@signulll

@deedydas hardest to monetize.

Deedy@deedydas

WhatsApp may be the statistically best app we've ever made.

It's a product manager's dream with its unparalleled addictiveness (DAU / MAU) of 87% and stickiness (M1 retention) of 86%, both #1 in the world while having the #1 most monthly active users for any non preinstalled app of 2.7B users.

Here are the top 25 most used apps in the world by MAU on both these metrics. Some surprising observations: — There are now 15 1B+ user apps in the world, 8 by Google, 4 by Meta. — The 3 that aren't are TikTok, Telegram (!) and ChatGPT — Telegram has more users than Spotify, Pinterest, Netflix, Amazon, Snap! — ChatGPT's one month retention is #5 after WA, Instagram, Chrome and Youtube. 2yrs ago, it was been #20 by M1 retention — Shopee, a shopping app in southeast Asia, is huge and retains users better than Amazon!

Useful way to break down consumer businesses especially within certain categories (X vs Reddit vs Threads is a good one). It's shocking how few new apps have been able to break through in the past 10yrs.

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Deedy@deedydas

definitely hard, but not sure if the hardest. its companion app, whatsapp business makes $7B in annual revenue!

i'd say the hardest is probably calendar or chrome.

if you go through this list, most things are monetized through ads, subscriptions or commerce. the notable exceptions are: — telegram, the most interesting comp, makes >$2B interestingly makes 1/3rd through crypto partnerships, 10% through contextual ads and a bulk through a paid subscription for premium features — chrome, which is google's distribution mechanism for search — gmail, where ads exists but is fairly unnatural — google photos and drive does not monetize directly, through paid storage — google maps is undermonetized, through ads — calendar and digital wellbeing are, afaik, unmonetized

signüll@signulll

@deedydas hardest to monetize.

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Shubham Srivastava@shubvastav

@signulll they failed to build a good suite of business features -- millions of businesses and smaller companies use it as their OS, they could've been the Slack for the average business

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Deedy@deedydas

@shubvastav Meta AI has an atrocious D30 retention of 4.5% (vs ChatGPT's 26.3%) and a DAU/MAU of 15.8% despite 56M MAUs.

Clear sign that it's just been involuntarily forced upon users with dark tactics to boost internal metrics

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Gauldoth@Gauldoth_undead

@deedydas When did chatgpt reach 1b mau I thought they were still at 900m. Why is there no official announcement from open AI?

42m85

John Rice@hello_code_

@signulll what do you think makes something sticky but hard to monetize, is it that the core behavior users love is exactly what breaks when you put ads or paywalls near it?

20m31

signüll@signulll

@siri0s_ peanuts compared to insta.

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Michael Tastad@michaeltastad

@signulll That’s because it’s basically a social good

1h421

Charlie Zhang@CharlieZZhang1

@deedydas knows a friend who works as a swe for shopee. not a lot of ppl know about the company. the team is cracked

48m130

Ronit@kumarronit31

@deedydas if AI would not have sucked up all investment and talent in last fee years , we could have more real world problem solving product like WhatsApp or Spotify etc

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Paul Bakhmut@PBakhmut

@deedydas And while the rest of the world uses mostly American apps, Americans still use texting and calling 😅

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saila@sailaunderscore

@deedydas Where's the chart from?

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Evergreen@evrgn11112231

@deedydas @signulll whatsapp / meta business agents will change the equation dramatically as well

28m90

Jonathan Graham ☀️@iamdailycourage

@signulll The irony is WhatsApp started off as a paid product ($1/yr) and the founding team was vehemently against ads.

https://fortune.com/2025/06/16/whatsapp-ads-cofounders-jan-koum-brian-acton/

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Deedy@deedydas

@Gauldoth_undead they track the wau number, this is mau: https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-app-hits-1-billion-monthly-active-users-record-time-data-shows-2026-06-02/

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Satyam@stym06

@deedydas Mostly due to the fact that Indians move from paid SMS plans to WhatsApp early last decade and there is no reason to not have this app.

44m71

Zinger@thisiszinger

@signulll Instagram shopping, no? Also they’re starting to roll out IG+ so we’ll see how that does (probably not too great tbh unless they start adding a bunch of exclusive features)

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signüll@signulll

@siri0s_ i’m familiar but it was $2b run rate for a 3b user product.

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samir sawarkar@samir_sawarkar

@deedydas DAU/MAU measures habit. M1 measures value. the rare products that dominate both stop competing with apps and start competing with human behavior.

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