WhatsApp did not specify how it calculated the number of users, but said it had 500 million users in 2014, when Facebook Inc bought the mobile-messaging startup for $19 billion (£15 billion) to boost its popularity, especially among a younger crowd.

Facebook has been trying to boost revenue from its high-growth units such as photo sharing platform Instagram and WhatsApp. It has been building out WhatsApp's e-commerce tools, as it moves towards monetizing the app.

WhatsApp in November launched a feature for small businesses, the main users for WhatsApp Business app, that offered them a "mobile storefront" to showcase their wares with images and prices.

Facebook had about 2.50 billion monthly active users as of Dec. 31, the company said. https://bit.ly/38nyrsm

(Reporting by Chinmay Rautmare in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

Stocks treated in this article : Tencent Holdings Limited, Facebook