A report from On Device, the mobile market researchers, has revealed that 44% of survey respondents prefer subscription service Whatsapp to Facebook's messenger facility.

With 86% of smartphone users surveyed accessing a messaging service every day, Facebook must compete with Whatsapp, BBM and WeChat for global popularity. The study spanned five countries and almost 4000 respondents across Brazil, China, Indonesia, South Africa and the United States.

WeChat has 93% saturation and adoption in China - a staggering domination - whilst Whatsapp, a subscription service, is free of adverts. Conversely, the majority of Facebook's revenue comes via paid advertising.

Instant messaging is more popular than ever before, even outstripping other communication facets, as "73% using their phones for voice calls, 75% using SMS and 60% using email," the report revealed.


Messenger Wars title photo

You can read the full report here. Messenger Wars: How Facebook lost its lead