Facebook's WhatsApp messenger hits 1 billion monthly users

Last time WhatsApp crowed about its active monthly user count, it was a zero shy of where it is now: 1 billion. The outfit says that's almost one in seven people on Earth who use Facebook's $19 billion messaging application. The announcement says not to expect much to change with this notable milestone other than forthcoming improvements to speed and security, most notably, while aiming to get the other six billion of our neighbors using the platform. Just think, if the company hadn't dropped its $1 annual subscription fee, that'd be a relatively easy billion dollars a year in income -- and we all know just how cool that much money is.