The share of the popular Telegram messenger service has grown significantly in the Russian market, tripling since the beginning of 2022, according to official data.
Maksut Shadaev, the head of Russia's Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, said on Tuesday that "at the beginning of 2022, the share of Telegram in the structure of mobile traffic accounted for 2.5%. Now Telegram's share is 8.5%."
Telegram has overtaken WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to become the most popular instant messaging application in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova.
It also became one of the top-5 downloaded apps worldwide last year. Market experts linked the trend to changes in the privacy policy of Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta-owned WhatsApp that prompted millions of users to shift away from the messenger and look for apps that were more focused on privacy. Telegram has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the development as it gained a huge following in 2022 with over 700 million active monthly users.
Russian-born Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of Telegram. He has been called the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia and was listed on the 2022 Forbes Billionaires List with a net worth of $11.5 billion.
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