�One billion people now use WhatsApp. There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people. This milestone is an important step towards connecting the entire world,� he posted on Facebook.�At WhatsApp, 1.6 billion photos and 250 million videos are being shared daily in 53 languages.

�WhatsApp�s community has more than doubled since joining Facebook. We�ve added the ability for you to call loved ones far away. We�ve dropped the subscription fee and made WhatsApp completely free,� the 31-year-old Facebook founder added.

�Next, we�re going to work to connect more people around the world and make it easier to communicate with businesses.�

Founded by Ukrainian immigrants to America Jan Koum and Brian Acton in 2009, WhatsApp was acquired by social media giant Facebook for $19 billion in 2014.�WhatsApp waived its annual subscription fee because it has not worked well.

�For many years, we have asked some people to pay a fee for using WhatsApp after their first year. As we have grown, we have found that this approach hasn�t worked well,� WhatsApp had said in a blog post recently.

Despite not being able to charge its hundreds of millions of users the annual fee, WhatsApp said it would not subject its users to advertisements.

�Naturally, people might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if today�s announcement means we are introducing third-party advertisements. The answer is no.�