Why Americans Don’t Use WhatsApp (and Why That’s a Problem)

Around 58 million people in my home country Germany use the messenger WhatsApp. The app has replaced what once used to be the SMS text message: almost everyone who owns a smartphone can also be reached via the WhatsApp messenger. But in the USA things are different: Meta's app never really caught on here - even though it was an American invention. And this development also brings some problems with it. A film by Matthias Schwarzer. -------------------------------- Sources for the video: Official WhatsApp user numbers Germany (2019, German): https://blog.wiwo.de/look-at-it/2019/09/26/so-beliebt-sind-facebook-whatsapp-facebook-messenger-instagram-in-deutschland/ Current SMS usage figures in Germany (Federal Network Agency, German): https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/SharedDocs/Mediathek/Berichte/2023/JB_TK_2022.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=1 Overview of SMS usage figures in Germany: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/155052/umfrage/versendete-sms-in-deutschland-seit-2000/ Current SMS usage numbers in the US: https://api.ctia.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2022-Annual-Survey.pdf Overview of SMS usage figures in the USA: https://www.statista.com/statistics/185879/number-of-text-messages-in-the-united-states-since-2005/#:~:text=In%202021,%20mobile%20users%20in%20,trillion%20SMS%20or%20MMS%20messages. "Americans can't quit SMS" ("New York Times"): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/technology/sms-whatsapp.html#:~:text=America's%20SMS%20exceptionalism%20has%20pros,into%20one%20company's%20communications%20world. The "Wall Street Journal" on the blue bubble problem: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apples-imessage-is-winning-teens-dread-the-green-text-bubble-11641618009 "The New York Times". on the blue bubble problem: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/29/technology/personaltech/apple-iphone-android-bubbles.html ABC about the blue bubble problem: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/imessage-android-inside-battle-green-blue-texts/story?id=105688611 Why Americans Don't Use WhatsApp ("New York Times"): https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/technology/personaltech/whatsapp-europe.html YouTuber Marques Brownlee on the blue bubble problem: https://youtu.be/BuaKzm7Kq9Q?si=k_d6ZleR9eNLrX7F -------------------------------- Did you like this video? Support my work on Patreon: http://patreon.com/MatthiasSchwarzerEnglish Or become a channel member on YouTube! -------------------------------- ▪️INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/MatthiasSchwarzer ▪️FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/MatthiasSchwarzerTravelVlogs ▪️TIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthiasschwarzertravel ▪️CONTACT: [email protected] -------------------------------- Intro song: MÆT - Start Again Music: Epidemic sound #whatsapp #meta #iphone #android #ios