The Explosive Growth of Telegram: Messaging App Statistics and Facts
Telegram has established itself as one of the world‘s most popular and fastest growing messaging applications. With over 550 million monthly active users as of 2022, it continues to gain significant market share across the globe.
In this in-depth post, we‘ll explore 20 key Telegram statistics covering growth, demographics, features, funding and more to understand what‘s driving its impressive rise.
1. Telegram has over 550 million monthly active users
As of January 2022, Telegram hit 550 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 500 million in 2021. This represents astonishing 73% year-over-year growth.
Telegram‘s growth has accelerated since 2020. The messaging platform amassed over 100 million new users in the first quarter of 2021 alone as users sought alternatives to WhatsApp amid data privacy concerns.
Asia comprises Telegram‘s largest user base at 38%, followed by 27% in Europe, 21% in Latin America and 8% in MENA.
2. It‘s the most downloaded app in over 20 countries
In 2021, Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming iOS app globally and in over 20 countries spanning Europe, Central Asia, MENA and Africa.
This was driven by a confluence of factors – WhatsApp‘s updated privacy policy which raised data sharing concerns, Telegram‘s feature additions, and its ease of use.
Combined with strong word-of-mouth growth, Telegram saw 63 million first time downloads in 2021 – 24% higher than Signal‘s 51.2 million.
3. Telegram has overtaken WhatsApp in certain markets
Telegram has established significant market share over chief rival WhatsApp in various countries.
In Iran, it surpassed WhatsApp‘s MAUs in early 2020 through early 2022. As of February 2022, Telegram has around 50 million MAUs in Iran compared to 32 million WhatsApp users.
Germany and Russia also have higher Telegram adoption than WhatApp. 50% of all Russians use Telegram on their smartphones.
This highlights the platform‘s wider global appeal compared to WhatsApp‘s dominance mainly across Western nations.
4. It sees 15 billion daily messages sent on average
A testament to Telegram‘s highly engaged user base is the volume of messages sent daily.
As of 2022, Telegram sees on average 15 billion messages sent daily – up 275% from 2016 when it logged a then record 15 billion.
Today, the average monthly number of messages exchanged on Telegram is at close to 500 billion.
Image source: Telegram
Such high usage and message volume points to Telegram‘s product stickiness. Core features like themes, emoji, bots, channels and file sharing underpin this engagement.
5. The average Telegram user sends 150 messages per day
Digging deeper into usage habits reveals that Telegram manages exceptionally high message volume from its individual users too.
The average Telegram user sends about 150 messages daily through the platform – 4 times WhatsApp‘s average of 40.
This indicates that Telegram isn‘t just gaining share by onboarding more users – it‘s gaining truly engaged, retained users who message more frequently.
6. Telegram logs over 35 million Daily Active Users in 2022
While monthly active users indicate overall adoption, daily active users (DAUs) signals product stickiness.
Per Telegram, it has amassed over 35 million DAUs as of 2022 across both its mobile and desktop apps. This is up markedly from 1.5 million DAUs in 2014.
Again, this impressive DAU count points to highly engaged users that are making Telegram a daily messaging habit comparable to rivals like WhatsApp.
7. Telegram gained 70 million new users amid WhatsApp privacy backlash
WhatsApp faced intense backlash in early 2021 over an update to its Terms of Service around sharing certain data with parent Facebook.
This sparked an exodus of users to rival private messaging platforms like Signal and Telegram.
During the week of WhatsApp‘s policy update on January 4, 2021, Telegram added 25 million new users within 72 hours across the globe including Europe.
Over the next 3 months until April 1, Telegram saw a total influx of a whopping 70 million new sign-ups owing to privacy concerns over WhatsApp.
This event became a significant inflection point that opened the floodgates to Telegram‘s rise among mainstream users in 2021.
8. Telegram has overtaken WhatsApp in 7 countries since January 2021
On the back of the above privacy controversy, Telegram has overtaken WhatsApp in monthly active users in at least 7 countries within a year.
These include Germany, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, France, Philippines, Austria and Ghana where Telegram now counts more users than WhatsApp.
This shift illustrates how data transparency and privacy concerns can reshape competitive market dynamics almost overnight in the mobile messaging space.
9. Telegram offers access in 15 different languages
A key pillar of Telegram‘s growth is supporting use by speakers of various global languages.
Users can access Telegram‘s interface in 15 languages including English, Spanish, German, Korean, Italian and Portuguese. Support for more vernacular languages has also expanded.
This language versatility makes onboarding and retention easier amid Telegram‘s international expansion beyond core markets like Russia & Iran.
10. 20% of Telegram‘s user base is in India
India has contributed significantly to Telegram‘s meteoric rise as its second largest market.
As of July 2022, over 145 million or 20% of Telegram‘s global user base is in India – second only to Russia. In the last 3 years, Telegram‘s Indian user base has almost quadrupled from 40 million.
This stratospheric growth is attributed in part to the Indian government banning other apps like TikTok. Many users migrated to Telegram for entertainment and information needs earlier met by TikTok.
Image source: Telegram
Russia continues as Telegram‘s top country base with 23% share followed by India, Iran and Indonesia as key strongholds.
11. Indonesia contributed over 10% of all Telegram installs in 2022
While India leads Telegram installs in absolute numbers, Indonesia follows closely behind in relative share of first time users.
Of all Telegram downloads globally in 2022, over 10% came just from Indonesia amounting to at least 7 million new users.
Fed by fast smartphone adoption and youth demand for rich messaging, Telegram grew by 290% in Indonesia amid the WhatsApp PR fiasco.
This indicates Telegram‘s exceptional potential for exponential network effect-driven growth across populous emerging markets.
12. Telegram offers over 20,000 diverse emoji and stickers
A huge part of messaging engagement revolves around fun elements like emoji, GIFs and stickers.
Telegram currently supports over 20,000 custom stickers and emoji spanning emotions, expressions, movies, animals and more. Users can further personalize stickers through Telegram‘s Sticker Maker bot.
This sheer diversity keeps usage entertaining and differentiated relative to the 100s of basic emoji found on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
13. Public telegram channels drive high engagement
Much of Telegram‘s adhesive user experiences stem from Channels – a public broadcast feature allowing creators and brands to reach millions of subscribers easily.
Over 200 million users subscribe to Telegram channels as of 2022 – up from 130 million in 2020. Top channels like Telusko Learning (11 million followers) and Blog TO (5.1 million) continue gaining subscribers at rapid clips.
Niche content hubs focused on education, news, gaming and entertainment consumption thrive as key channels – adding a Twitter-like information feed dimension unique among mobile messengers.
14. Cryptocurrency and blockchain channels lead in popularity
Among Telegram channels, cryptocurrency and blockchain emerge as highly popular themes. Of the top 100 Telegram channels globally, over 25 focus exclusively on crypto – more than any other topic.
For example, channels like Crypto News have yielded over 2.7 million subscribers by sharing the latest on Bitcoin, wallets, DeFi platforms, NFTs and trading advice.
Such avid user demand highlights the platform‘s appeal to tech-savvy communities who value privacy, security and real-time exchange around bleeding edge topics.
15. Telegram gained 6 million users during Hong Kong protests
During the Hong Kong political protests of 2019, Telegram played an instrumental role in enabling communication and organizing among protestors.
Owing to heightened user privacy needs during this sensitive movement, Telegram‘s user base swelled by 6 million or 465% in a single year across Hong Kong.
By 2021, almost 60% of Hong Kong residents used Telegram reflecting its perception as a trusted, secure means of encrypted messaging during times of unrest.
16. Telegram does not rely on any ads – past or present
As a bootstrapped messaging platform funded entirely by its tech entrepreneur CEO Pavel Durov, Telegram has steered completely clear of ads or user data monetization.
To date, Telegram has not shown a single ad to users – a unique edge versus ad-supported rivals like Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. It has also never sold private user insights to marketers or third parties.
Telegram‘s ad-free experience protects its brand image as an independent platform focused purely on fast, fun messaging rather than commercial outcomes. This focus on experience purity has been key to driving viral adoption.
17. Telegram‘s founder has invested over $1 billion into the platform
Instead of relying on fickle investor funding or shareholder returns, Telegram founder Pavel Durov has largely self-financed the messaging platform‘s technology and operations entirely.
As of 2022, Durov has invested over $1 billion directly from his personal savings earned from selling his VKontakte social network stake. This unfettered control enables Telegram to focus solely on user appeal rather than profit demands.
Moving forward as costs balloon with 500+ million users, Durov has contemplated allowing regulated businesses to advertise on public Telegram channels to generate revenue. However, the app itself will remain ad-free.
18. Telegram released $200,000 bug bounties to boost security
User security has been paramount to Telegram since inception across areas like default chat encryption and data protection.
To further strengthen its platform against vulnerabilities, Telegram run bug bounty programs offering rewards up to $200,000 to ethical hackers who can uncover rare flaws.
It runs such bounties proactively even without clear threats – underscoring its premium on safety for politically vulnerable user groups across markets like Russia and Iran.
19. Telegram launched premium subscriptions in June 2022
After years of completely free access devoid of any ads or freemium tiers, Telegram unveiled premium subscriptions in June 2022 – its first monetization effort directly from consumers.
Telegram Premium provides exclusive features like doubled limits, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions for approximately $5 per month. 10% of global revenue goes towards technical infrastructure costs.
This move balances offering free access to all core messaging features while monetizing optional ‘nice-to-have‘ benefits – an elegant strategy thus far for a highly viral platform now seeking sustainability.
20. Telegram has over 1 billion downloads after 8 years
In September 2021, Telegram surpassed 1 billion cumulative downloads across iOS and Android stores just 8 years from launch.
This milestone cements its status as a mainstream mobile messaging app globally on par with veteran platforms like Facebook Messenger at over a decade old.
It also sets the stage for Telegram to continue scaling rapidly in emerging markets while launching more monetization vehicles to self-fund its future growth.
The Future is Bright for Alternative Messaging
Telegram‘s relentless above 65% annual growth pace shows no signs of slowing down as demand for private communication explodes globally. Unseating long dominant incumbents across markets is no longer unimaginable.
User behavior can shift extremely quickly in mobile – particularly when concerns like privacy or spam arise. By offering radically different standards like true encryption and an ad-free experience, Telegram has shown authentic alternatives can successfully disrupt when user needs are unmet.
With its thriving platform of communities, channels and engaged loyalists across 180 countries, Telegram seems poised to lead private messaging into a new era where the user takes center stage again.
