Amelia Johns

In the 2010s, as chat apps became a primary mode of communication for many people across the world, WhatsApp quickly outpaced rival messaging apps and developed into a platform.

In this book, the authors provide a comprehensive account of WhatsApp’s global growth. Charting WhatsApp’s evolution from its founding in 2009 to the present day, they argue that WhatsApp has been transformed from a simple, ‘gimmickless’ app into a global communication platform. Understanding this development can shed light on the trajectory of Meta’s industrial development, and how digital economies and social media landscapes are evolving with the rise of ‘superapps’. This book explores how WhatsApp’s unique characteristics mediate new kinds of social and commercial transactions; how they pose new opportunities and challenges for platform regulation, civic participation and democracy; and how they give rise to new kinds of digital literacy as WhatsApp becomes integrated into everyday digital cultures across the globe.

Accessibly written, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars of digital media, cultural studies, and media and communications.