Telegram messaging app, one of the most popular means of social communication, is spreading like wildfire and will exceed 1 billion active monthly users within a year, said the founder of the app and a billionaire, Pavel Durov.
Dubai-based Telegram was founded by Russian-born Durov. The company sold it out after refusing to comply with demands to shut down anti-government posts on Russia’s popular social media platform VK. Durov left Russia under pressure from the Russian government in 2014.
“We will probably exceed one billion monthly active users on Telegram within a year,” Pavel Durov said in a video interview posted on the account of US journalist Carlson on the X social media platform. Nowadays telegrams are spreading like wildfire.’
According to Forbes magazine, Durov’s wealth is 15.5 billion dollars. “Some governments wanted to push him, but Telegram now has 900 million active users,” Durov said. It should remain as a neutral platform. Will not be a player in geopolitics.’
One of Telegram’s main competitors is Meta. WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users. A report in the Financial Times last March said Telegram could target a US stock listing after reaching profitability.
Telegram ranks as one of the most influential social media platforms in the republics of the former Soviet Union after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.
Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become a major source of crude and sometimes graphic and misleading content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.