That’s 64 billion messages sent through a single company. 64 billion messages sent using a single company’s proprietary application, communicating with their private servers using their proprietary communications protocol.
I find that kind of disturbing. What happened to that “decentralisation of the web” thing?
Problem is that with a decentralised system (say XMPP) you have no controlling interest to ensure you have a decent client - just look at the XMPP clients available on iOS compared with the silo'd systems like iMessage (which is basically XMPP anyway), Hangouts (started as XMPP), Facebook Messenger (also XMPP), WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, whatever.
They are -years- behind in terms of functionality, UI design, UX design, etc. For mass market adoption, you need mass market apps and none of the XMPP ones are up to scratch.
(I would rather use XMPP and have everyone reachable on one "network" than have a folder full of IM apps with distinct bunches of people on each one.)
I find that kind of disturbing. What happened to that “decentralisation of the web” thing?