Telegram reaches 700m users, many yanked from Facebook, WhatsApp, others
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Telegram, the new kid social media platform competing with giant Facebook and its offspring WhatsApp, says it now has 700 million monthly active users (MAUs) garnered from personal recommendations without paying to advertise itself.
Telegram trails WeChat with 1.2 billion MAUs, WhatsApp two billion MAUs, and of course market leader Facebook with 2.93 billion MAUs.
But the platform, a cloud-based mobile and desktop app, is undaunted, announcing in a blog post the launch of Telegram Premium, a subscription that enables users support its development and provides access to exclusive features.
The development would see Telegram offer some of the heavy features users have asked for over the years and also preserve free access to all existing features.
Social media growth should be driven primarily by users, not advertisers; “this way our users will always remain our main priority,” Telegram said.
“The contributions of Premium subscribers will help improve and expand the app for decades to come, while Telegram will remain free, independent and uphold its users-first values, redefining how a tech company should operate.”
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Benefits of Telegram Premium
“While we are going to release more exciting features for Premium subscribers, we will keep implementing free features available for everyone, and do it faster than any other massively popular app,” Telegram added, per Nairametrics.
“By subscribing to Telegram Premium, users unlock doubled limits, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management – and a whole lot more.
“At the same time, all existing features that users have come to expect and rely on for nearly a decade remain free.
“Moreover, non-premium users will be able to enjoy some of Premium’s benefits: for example, download the extra-large document and view stickers sent by premium users, as well as tap to increase counters on premium reaction that were already added to a message.”
About Telegram
Telegram is a freemium, cross-platform, cloud-based instant messaging (IM) service. The service also provides end-to-end encrypted video calling, VoIP, file sharing and several other features.
It was launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013.
The servers of Telegram are distributed worldwide with five data centres in different regions, while the operational center is based in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Telegram provides optional end-to-end encrypted chats. Cloud chats and groups are encrypted between the app and the server, so that ISPs and other third-parties on the network can’t access data, but the Telegram server can, according to Wikipedia.
Users can send text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share an unlimited number of images, documents (2 GB per file), user locations, animated stickers, contacts, and audio files. Users can also follow channels, which have been used by celebrities.
In January 2021, Telegram surpassed 500 million monthly active users. It was the most downloaded app worldwide in January 2021 with 1 billion downloads globally as of late August 2021.
In June 2022, Telegram surpassed 700 million monthly active users and introduced Telegram Premium at $3.99 monthly for subscription.
Telegram Messenger says its end goal is not to bring profit, but it is not structured as a non-profit organisation.
Telegram is registered as a company in the British Virgin Islands and as a limited liability company (LLC) in Dubai.
It does not disclose where it rents offices or which legal entities it uses to rent them, citing the need to “shelter the team from unnecessary influence” and protect users from governmental data requests.