Telegram cracks 500 million active users
Telegram now has over 500 million active users. (Photo: AlexandraPopova / Shutterstock)
No time right now?
After Whatsapp’s terms and conditions change, alternative messengers are experiencing a rush. Telegram registers 25 million new registrations in 3 days.
In the first week of January, Telegram cracked the 500 million active user mark. Telegram founder Pawel Durow announced via the service that there were 25 million new registrations within the last 72 hours.
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New WhatsApp terms and conditions encourage a change
That is an unusually rapid increase. In the company’s 7-year history, there has never been such a rapid increase in user numbers. Last year, an average of 1.5 million new users registered each day.
Other Whatsapp alternatives like Signal and Threema also experienced a rush after Whatsapp announced new terms of use. Those who want to continue using the service should agree by February 8th.
Much wind about nothing?
With the new terms and conditions, Whatsapp may expressly transmit data to Facebook. This point has caused uncertainty and criticism, even if essentially nothing has changed compared to before.
Nevertheless, the notification of the new terms and conditions apparently made many people think and switch to alternatives.
“People no longer want to be held hostage by tech monopolies who seem to believe that they can get away with anything as long as their apps have a critical mass of users,” writes Telegram founder Durow.
