Ditto in Asia. In Singapore, no one texts and hardly use fb messenger but whatsapp use is prevalent.
Same thing in neighbouring Malaysia. Everyone operates under the assumption that you are contactable via WhatsApp. Recently I even had doctor and car service appointments booked through WhatsApp.
Only in parts of Europe. In some cliques.
In Italy, Spain is used by just about everyone, not "some cliques", and the statment that has "replaced SMS" is a fair assessment.
Can't say about other countries.
My objection was to the generalization of Europe as a whole.
The Netherlands too. It has a near monopoly on IM here.