Mobile messaging service WhatsApp is going from strength to strength and now has more active monthly users than Twitter, according to the company’s CEO Jan Koum.

Speaking in a mobile conference in New York last week Koum revealed that the mobile app now has more than 200 million users claiming that it carries an average of 20 billion messages per day – more than double the number of messages carried by Facebook.


The company will not go down the same route as Facebook and Twitter by introducing advertising, however. Currently the app charges a 99 cents annual subscription fee on Android, but Koum admits that the company is against advertising.

“We’re bombarded with ads so much in our daily lives and we feel that smartphones aren’t the place for that,” said Koum. “Putting advertising on a device like that is a bad idea. You don’t want to be interrupted by ads when you’re chatting with your loved ones.

“Our monetization strategy is simple; one dollar a year. If we did something besides that, it would just get in the way.”

Koum added that the company has yet to see any reduction in user numbers since they introduced the charge meaning that WhatsApp is in a better condition than other apps with continued user growth, user activity and inbound revenue.

Despite all this positive news the firm has denied the rumours that it is in talks to sell up to Google or any other large tech company. Watch this space to see where this success story goes.

For more information on the world of mobile apps head down to next year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 24-27 February. For all your accommodation needs in the city look to EAS, your friendly local travel agent. We have rooms in all the best Barcelona hotels and most centrally located apartments. We’ll organise your transportation, nightly entertainment and make sure your stay is as stress free as it is unforgettable. Click on this link to fill in our request form.

Mobile owners are increasingly using their smartphones to access the internet in preference of traditional PCs and laptops according to a new survey carried out by Prosper Mobile Insights.

The company, which looked into the internet habits of adults from across the world, found that seven out of ten smartphone users complete at least one web-based activity on their phone in favour of a PC or laptop, regardless of whether they are on the move or at home.

More than half of respondents (51.1%) admitted to checking their emails using only a mobile device, while 45.3% completed mobile-only web searches and 42.3% used only their phone to connect to Facebook.

All this means that today’s leading brands have an increasing need to embrace mobile advertising. But as the survey shows, they need to be aware of which ads their customers will be most receptive to. Around 1 in 10 people said they pay regular attention to sponsored stories or links, ads that play before or during a video, and video ads in general.

Video ads are the most popular with 42.9% of respondents saying they are more likely to grab their attention than other forms of advertising. The most successful video ads are ones you cannot click away from, with 30.4% of people confirming that they pay more attention to this video format.

The survey made clear that marketers should make sure that ads are delivered to the right audience. 33.5% of people said they are more likely to pay attention if the ad is relevant, 24.2% claimed they are looking for informative ads and 23.9% are more likely to be responsive to eye-catching advertising.

The world of mobile advertising is still in its infancy and there are limitless opportunities for marketers to promote their brands to a global audience. For all the latest news on how to benefit from mobile marketing head down to the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona’s Fira Gran Via, 25-28 February. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona. Or if you prefer, why not try one of our luxury yachts – the choice is yours. We’ll also organise all your transportation needs and book you into the city’s best restaurants. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.

Mobile phones have overtaken desktops as the most common way in which people in China connect to the internet.

The Chinese government announced in July that the number of web users in the country had now reached 538 million, meaning that nearly four out of 10 of its 1.3 billion people now use the web.

A report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) also reported that mobile internet users now number 388 million, which is up almost 10 percent since the start of 2012, while 380 million use computers.

The key cause for this growth has been put down to the fall in smartphone costs, which has seen an increase in the number of rural mobile users in China. More than 50 percent of the year’s new internet users were from China’s rural areas according to the report.

“Mobile phones are a cheaper and more convenient way to access the internet for residents in China’s vast rural areas and for the enormous migrant population,” the report said. “Meanwhile, mobile phone prices continued to drop – the emergence of smartphones under 1,000 yuan ($157) sharply lowered the threshold for using the devices and encouraged average mobile phone users to become mobile web surfers,” the report concluded.

China is now the largest smartphone market in the world with 33 million mobile phones sold in the country over the past 12 months compared with 25 million in the USA during the same time, with a growth rate at a stunning 164 percent.

Is this the beginning of the Chinese dominance of the world’s mobile phone market? Head to next year’sMobile World Congress in Barcelona to find out. For the best in accommodation, arranged transportation, hotel recommendations, and anything else you can think of to make your stay in Barcelona one to remember, look no further than EAS, the travel agent you can trust.

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Finally Britons have been given the chance to join millions of Americans, Finns, South Koreans and Australians after Everything Everywhere was given the go ahead to deploy the country’s first commercial 4G network.

The giant operator, which is a merger of Orange and T-Mobile, will switch on its network in October. The new signalling standard for 4G networks, called Long-Term Evolution (LTE), will allow smartphone users to download data 10 times the speed currently allowed by 3G networks. Within a few years it is predicted that 4G will be around three times faster than the most expensive home broadband packages on offer.

The decision by Ofcom essentially gives Everything Everywhere a head start over rivals Vodafone and O2. The UK’s second and third largest carriers are not able to start using the new bandwidth until after a radio spectrum auction which is due to conclude in March of next year. They stated this week that the regulator had created a temporary monopoly in allowing Everything Everywhere to switch to 4G before they could. Ofcom countered, however, saying that the need to keep the UK in the digital race was more important than any complaints about competition.

Everything Everywhere has still not released details of how extensive its 4G coverage will be, but it is expected to take years before the whole of the UK is covered. Islands of 4G coverage will spring up around the major cities first, where investment is likely to be highest.

By 2015 almost the entire population should be able to use the new network as operators have agreed to 98 percent coverage across the country. However, for those who prefer their older handsets, the 2G networks will still be around for the foreseeable future. So good old fashioned text messages and regular phone calls still have some time before they are consigned to the history books.

For all the latest information on the world of 4G and other mobile-related news, head to the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, 25-28 February. If you’re after accommodation then look no further than EAS, your friendly local travel agents. We’ll find you the best hotels and rented apartments right in the heart of Barcelona. Or if you prefer, why not try one of our luxury yachts – the choice is yours. Just click on this link to fill in our request form.