Dive Brief:

• Facebook announced Monday that Messenger, its standalone messaging app, has hit over 500 million monthly active users. 
• The growth is up from 200 million users in April 2014. 
• Messenger is seeing success despite having a social backlash after separating the messaging app from the Facebook app in August that resulted in a 1.5/5 star rating in the Apple app store. 

Dive Insight: 

The lesson to be learned from Messenger's success is that sometimes a brand or product can bounce back from initial negative response if users still feel like they need your product. Because the messaging function of Facebook was already popular among users, it gave the standalone app a strong base to start. The social giant has dealt with scores of image problems in the past, so it remains to be seen if anything can dethrone Facebook's power in the social media realm.