Telegram on the road to reach one billion users: Founder Pavel Durov
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The Russian-born entrepreneur shared on his Telegram channel that the social media platform obtained 50 million users since spring, bringing the number of monthly users to 950 million.
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Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, during a technology event in San Francisco, September 2015. (AFP)
Encrypted instant messaging platform Telegram has reached 950 million active monthly users and continues to grow exponentially, CEO and founder Pavel Durov said on Tuesday.
The Russian-born entrepreneur shared on his Telegram channel that the social media platform obtained 50 million users since spring, and is on the road to reach one billion users.
Back in April, Telegram reached 900 million monthly users, including 450 million daily log-ins, Durov reported. Attributing the Data AI company, the founder also revealed that the social media platform was the sixth most used and downloaded application worldwide.
Increased popularity
The social media application is especially popular in Russia and Ukraine, gaining global recognition following the escalation of the Ukraine war and a change in WhatsApp's setting by its parent company Meta.
Similar to Meta's instant messaging platforms, Telegram enables users to send private and group messages, the difference however, is that it does not restrict and censor users' content.
Telegram in Ukraine and the EU
Despite being the most popular instant messaging platform in 2023, Ukraine is calling for a ban on the Russian-made application, claiming it is a threat to the country's national security.
Ukraine’s head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Kirill Budanov, who is on Russia's terror and extremist list has consistently criticized the social media platform for enabling anonymous channels to post and share information about the Russia-Ukraine war, ultimately breaching Kiev's censorship regulations.
Budanov stated in April that Telegram's popularity has presented a "huge problem" for Ukraine's attempts to restrict damaging information.
European Union officials are also aiming to implement regulations for Telegram and are allegedly seeking to place the app as a “very large online platform," shifting the encrypted social media platform to conform to the EU's strict censorship rules.
