Competing With WhatsApp, Telegram Reaches 1 Billion Monthly Active Users

Telegram reaches 1 billion monthly active users (photo: Telegram)

JAKARTA - Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced that the Telegram messaging application managed to reach their milestone with more than 1 billion monthly active users.

With this achievement, Durov claims that Telegram has become the second most popular instant messaging platform in the world, after Meta's messaging app, WhatsApp.

"Telegram now has more than 1 billion monthly active users, making it the second most popular messaging app in the world (outside WeChat specifically for China)," Durov said on his broadcast channel on Telegram.

In addition, Telegram also highlights the increase in user engagement, with each user opening the app 21 times a day on average and spending 41 minutes on it.

Telegram also recorded a profit of 547 million US dollars or around Rp9.04 trillion in 2024, marking significant growth compared to previous years.

Durov insists that this success was achieved despite efforts from their main competitor, WhatsApp, which is claimed to have imitated various Telegram features while spending billions of dollars on lobbying and PR campaigns.

"Over the years, they desperately tried to emulate our innovations, but they failed. Telegram continued to grow, became profitable, and 'different from our competitors' remained independent," he explained.

With this achievement, Telegram further strengthens its position in the global market as a major competitor to WhatsApp. In the future, Durov stated that he would continue to innovate to provide the best experience for its users.

"Telegrams are growing, becoming profitable, and unlike our competitors stay independent. We're just starting out," the announcement concluded.