Turkey's locally-developed messaging app BIP wins nearly 8 million users worldwide

With WhatsApp under fire worldwide over a policy change, Turkish-based messaging app BiP is winning over more and more users, racking up some 8 million outside Turkey's borders, said the app's developer.

In Google Play, BiP now ranks first in Bahrain, Bangladesh, Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Oman, GSM operator Turkcell said in a statement.

BiP has been downloaded more than 65 million times in total. With the recent high demand from users, BiP continues to climb to the top of the 'free most popular' and ''trending' categories in app markets worldwide.

Atac Tansug, vice president of Turkcell digital services and solutions, said the company maintains to invest in BİP, and new features in the works are certain to attract even more users.

After WhatsApp announced controversial changes to its privacy policy that allows it to share more data with parent company Facebook, users began to flee the app and seek alternatives.

Amid the backlash, WhatsApp last Friday postponed its new privacy policy from Feb. 8 to May 15.