Telegram CEO and Founder Pavel Durov in a blogpost announced that Telegram has added 25 million new users globally in the last 72 hours alone. It surpassed 500 million monthly active users in the first week of January. The new rise is due to the new update to WhatsApp’s privacy policy which the company clarified later after backlash from people. Several users moved to Telegram and Signal.
Telegram said that the new users are from across the globe include 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA.
The company said that Telegram messenger is focused on its mission to empower common people by providing them the best quality in security, privacy and seamless connectivity while they are communicating. With its current growth rate, Telegram is aiming to reach billions of users in the near future.
Regarding the new achievement and the future of Telegram, CEO Pavel Durov said:
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.
Those of you who have used Telegram for the last several years know we’ve been consistent both when it comes to defending private data and to improving our apps. For those of you who just joined and are wondering what Telegram stands for, I’d like to quote.
You – our users – have been and will always be our only priority. Unlike other popular apps, Telegram doesn’t have shareholders or advertisers to report to. We don’t do deals with marketers, data miners or government agencies. Since the day we launched in August 2013, we haven’t disclosed a single byte of our users’ private data to third parties. We operate this way because we don’t regard Telegram as an organization or an app. For us, Telegram is an idea; it is the idea that everyone on this planet has a right to be free.