Mark Zuckerberg Believes WhatsApp Can Reach 2-3 Billion Users

Will messaging be bigger than social media? That seems to be the message Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent today at an appearance in Mexico City.

In remarks quoted by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg said that he believes WhatsApp, the mobile messaging service Facebook is in the process of acquiring for $19 billion, can ultimately reach two or three billion people. WhatsApp currently has a user base of 600 million, less than half of Facebook’s 1.3 billion active users.

“I think WhatsApp is going to be the global text messaging platform,” Zuckerberg said, according to Bloomberg. “I think we’re going to have an opportunity for WhatsApp to connect two or three billion people.”

To reach those numbers, more of the world’s population would need to be connected to the Internet, and Facebook’s year-old Internet.org project is focused on just that — expanding mobile access in the developing world.

“We feel a big responsibility to bring the Internet to more people,” Zuckerberg said. “Even if Facebook has to spend billions of dollars” to make it happen, he said.