Telegram on Wednesday said it had added 25 million new users over the recent 72 hours alone. The new users came from across the world. Asia contributed the most with 38% addition. About 27% of users came from Europe, while 21% came from Latin America. 8% of new users came from MENA.
Telegram, much the same as Signal, is registering a surge in downloads after WhatsApp presented a new policy that raised concerns among privacy-conscious users. Users are running to elective platforms that are considered safer and private. The likes of Elon Musk have also encouraged the migration from Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
As per a Sensor Tower report, Signal and Telegram saw just about 4,000,000 downloads in India after WhatsApp’s policy change. Signal drove the race with 2.3 million new downloads between January 6 and January 10, while Telegram timed 1.5 million new downloads over a similar period. Hailing the surge in new users, Pavel Durov said that peoples are no longer interested in free services in exchange for their privacy.
He stated, “This is a significant increase compared to last year, when 1.5M new users signed up every day. We’ve had surges of downloads before, throughout our 7-year history of protecting user privacy. But this time is different. People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services. They no longer want to be held hostage by tech monopolies that seem to think they can get away with anything as long as their apps have a critical mass of users. With half a billion active users and accelerating growth, Telegram has become the largest refuge for those seeking a communication platform committed to privacy and security. We take this responsibility very seriously. We won’t let you down.”
