Nimbuzz‘s cross-platform instant messaging and calling application has just surpassed 150 million users according to AC Nielsen, who in February placed the popular app among the top four consumer brands in India with Facebook, YouTube, and Gmail trailing.
Nimbuzz’s growth has been nothing short of explosive; the app had 50 million registered users as of August 2011 and and doubled in a year, surpassing 100 million users in August 2012. Now the app has surpassed 150 million users spanning 200 countries and 5,000 devices on all major operating systems, including PC and Mac. As we’ve mentioned before here on TruTower, most of the app’s users reside in Asia — particularly Saudi Arabia and India — and has 25 million users in the latter country alone, who make an average of over 1 billion minutes worth of calls and send and receive 102 billion messages per month. 16 million users live in Africa, 10 million users reside in Asia, and 9 million users call the United States home.
The mobile VoIP market is certainly seeing a surplus of competition. Skype leads the pack with over 800 million users, followed by a fast-growing Viber, which recently surpassed 175 million users and has plans to expand its own app to Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 in the near future. Nimbuzz ranks behind Viber and is just ahead of Japan-based Naver Corp’s LINE application, which surpassed 100 million users in January. As the competition continues to grow, the resentment from many wireless carriers is certainly to follow.