Hike and WeChat fill TVs with commercials, but WhatsApp stays on top with 70 million active users in India

Asian messaging apps like Hike of India, Line from Japan, and WeChat from China have been making big inroads into a growing smartphone crowd – but the big daddy of them all WhatsApp remains comfortably perched on top in India.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) -owned WhatsApp now has 70 million active users (MAUs) in India, out of a total global user base of 600 million. WhatsApp’s business head Neeraj Arora announced the latest figures at the INK Conference in Mumbai, PTI reported. The instant messenger app added 20 million new MAUs in six months since it announced hitting 50 million active user mark in India.

In August, WhatsApp’s Indian competitor Hike said it hit 35 million registered users, without divulging its number of active users. It put out the figure while announcing its largest round of funding: US$65 million led by Tiger Global Management. Its earlier investor Bharti SoftBank (BSB), a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Japan’s Softbank Corporation, also participated in the round.

There are a billion people in India coming online for the first time using their smartphones. Hike and WeChat are advertising heavily to catch them early, but for now, WhatsApp is still way ahead in the game.

See: Hike grabs no. 1 spot from WhatsApp on Google Play, iOS App Store in India