Telegram app grows in popularity

Ever since it launched in August 2013, Telegram has been an exceptionally popular social media platform and messaging app, thanks to its utility and focus on privacy.

Telegram's strong growth continued well into 2024. Finbold’s research found that, between April 10 and July 22, the platform added more than 485,000 monthly active users (MoU) every day.

The growth ensured that, by the middle of the summer, Telegram’s user base stood at 950 million - meaning that approximately one-eighth of humanity was using the app.

While coming just 50 million shy of 1 billion users is a major milestone, it is interesting to note that the social media platform has, at times, boasted even stronger growth. For example, in July 2023, the CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, revealed that 2.5 million people signed up to Telegram daily.

EU’s shadow over Telegram

Despite Telegram’s popularity and momentum, the platform has been gaining a different kind of attention since August 24 when the French police arrested Durov at an airport near Paris.

Though President Emmanuel Macron and his government maintain that the arrest was not politically motivated, it has nonetheless sparked a strong backlash, with many interpreting it as a crackdown on privacy and free speech.

Indeed, even the allegations of poor moderation and failure to prevent illicit activity are founded, they, nonetheless, raise important questions in the debate on the balance between privacy, surveillance, and national security.

"Even if genuine and undisputable illicit activity on Telegram was detected, the arrest is still likely to make many question if, by the same logic, the entire police force of a nation should be prosecuted whenever any illegal activity takes place in a private home or a hotel room," noted Andreja Stojanovic, a co-author of the research.

Nonetheless, there are no guarantees the arrest will have a profound impact on Telegram itself and, indeed, the platform has already shown significant resilience to government pressure during the Russian 2018 ban.

Telegram continues a history of strong user growth

While the growth rate in 2024 has been significant, it is interesting that Durov himself reported in July 2023 that his social media platform was gaining 2.5 million new accounts daily.

Still, it is worth pointing out that not all new accounts on any given platform reliably turn into active monthly users (MoUs) - a term frequently used by various social media websites, including Instagram, X, and Facebook, to express their growth and popularity.

Furthermore, it is somewhat harder to gauge Telegram’s actual growth rate over the years as several milestone announcements have not been provided with specific dates. 

For example, Durov revealed on his personal channel on December 31, 2022, that the number of MoUs had reached 700 million, though it is not entirely clear what the data breakoff date is.

Similarly, in a lengthy post discussing the Telegram ban in Russia made in June 2020, Pavel Durov revealed that by May of that year, the number of active monthly users hit 400 million.

Additionally, the founder and CEO used that same post to highlight the platform’s resilience, pointing out that Moscow’s ban - implemented on April 13, 2018 - did not significantly reduce the number of Russians on the app.

Telegram most popular in the ‘Global South,’ few Westerners use the platform

It is also interesting that Telegram is significantly more popular in countries considered a part of the ‘Global South’ than in Western nations. 

For example, recent data published by Statista showcases that 45% of surveyed people in India, 38% in Brazil, 34% in Mexico, and 32% in South Africa use the platform regularly.

Simultaneously, Telegram is most popular in Italy among the examined ‘Global North’ nations, and 29% of Italians use the app daily. In Germany, only 16% of respondents stated they are regularly on the platform, 10% in the United Kingdom, 9% in the United States, and only 1% in Japan.

The statistics may not be as surprising as they first appear, however. Pavel Durov is a Russian entrepreneur living in the United Arab Emirates, and many of the countries in which Telegram is popular either used to have strong ties to the Soviet Union or are close to modern Russia through the BRICS alliance.