WhatsApp is now the new leader of Indonesian messaging industry. As a matter of fact, it has surpassed the previous leader, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), in term of year-of-year (YoY) growth, claimed XL Axiata’s (XL) Chief Social Media Officer Ongky Kurniawan at yesterday’s Mobile Marketing Association Forum (MMAF).

As Merdeka reported, XL suggested that WhatsApp’s YoY growth reached 37%, while BBM’s YoY decreased up to 15% from last year’s figure. In total, 70% of XL’s customers who get connected to the internet have WhatsApp on their device. That being said, XL has currently around 31,2 million customers who get connected to the internet, meaning that the number covers 50% of XL’s total users.

Furthermore, XL also claimed that most of BBM’s users have migrated into other messaging services like Line and WeChat, that is equal to 40% of total smartphone users in Indonesia. Now, less than 10% of XL customers remain using BBM.

WhatsApp’s glory in Indonesia has actually been predicted. A last year’s survey by OnDevice showed that WhatsApp, BBM, and Line were the three most used apps in Indonesia. The Google Trends’ summary during 2013 also suggested pretty much the same. WhatsApp’s massive popularity is partially supported by the app’s compatibility to not only smartphones but also featured phones, like Nokia Asha and others which are based on S40.

It’s almost certain that this shift of chatting app’s trend affects the use of voice call among users. In this regard, many users prefer using chatting app to voice call, as they claim that it’s cheaper and more efficient.

“Mobile devices are one of most used ones by people, right from they wake up in the morning until the moment they close their eyes at night,” Kurniawan said.

Another interesting fact that’s too gold to be missed is that in general, Indonesians spend up to 5,5 hours of their time playing with their gadget each and every day. This has surely surpassed the time spend with their TVs.

[Header Illustration: Shutterstock | Data: AddictionID Instagram]