[dTal]

Well, I'm happy for you. But the question was about Europe.

"Everyone" (scare quotes) does have it in Europe. Not having it absolutely draws comment, in a similar way that not having a Facebook account drew comment some years back. And as to why nobody defaults to the lowest common denominator of SMS, WhatsApp is vastly superior to SMS:

-seamless picture, video, and audio messaging - this is always super janky / broken on MMS

-built-in interface to Giphy

-integrated video and voice calling

-group chats (especially this)

These features are optimized for use by a meme-loving, highly social, audio-visually oriented userbase. Posting a reaction gif to a funny group chat thread is 1) vital culture and 2) impossible on SMS. That's why.