WhatsApp mobile penetration in Italy H1 2018, by month

In 2018, WhatsApp was the most used chat app in Italy. However, according to data tracked by Walletsaver, the mobile penetration of WhatsApp decreased from 76.4 percent in February 2018 to 67.9 percent as of June 2018. Throughout the quarter, the mobile penetration of WhatsApp in Italy was in line with that of other European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands.

WhatsApp vs its alternatives

Considering the most frequently used messaging apps among Italian internet users, WhatsApp ranked first, followed by Facebook Messenger. In a survey conducted in 2018, four in ten respondents stated that they still used the traditional messaging service SMS, while about one in five respondents used the encrypted messaging app Telegram. With 95 percent of Internet users declaring to use WhatsApp, however, it looked like its popularity could hardly be surpassed by any other messaging service.

Data consumption

As tracked by Walletsaver, WhatsApp users preferred Wi-Fi connections over mobile data: the average mobile data consumption of WhatsApp users in January and February 2018 was half as large as the Wi-Fi data consumption.