Pavel Durov , founder of Telegram , shared a Fortune chart where it is stated that his app is already the second most popular in the world, only behind WhatsApp .
Telegram has constantly worked over the years to become the ultimate instant messaging app, developing tools or features that its competitors don’t yet have. These efforts have managed to position the app as the second most popular in the world in its respective category, surpassing Facebook Messenger and dangerously close to WhatsApp : its biggest rival.
According to a publication that Pavel Durov , founder of the company, shared through his official channel on the platform, Telegram had an audience that represented 31% of the messaging application market in 2022, a huge increase considering that it only had 5% of it in 2018.
Durov cited a Fortune magazine chart via Apptopia to claim that Telegram has officially overtaken Facebook Messenger in the cloud messaging app market. Meta ‘s platform only managed to maintain an audience of 21% despite the fact that, in 2018, it had 43% of the total market.
Telegram continues to get closer to WhatsApp
In his post, Durov wrote: “Over the past 5 years, Telegram has surpassed Facebook Messenger to become the most popular cloud messaging app. Telegram is now second only to WhatsApp and is closing the gap year after year. No wonder our competitors are concerned!” .
Although WhatsApp still maintains its supremacy in the instant messaging application market, the truth is that what the founder of Telegram points out has a certain reason. WhatsApp held 51% of this sector in 2018, which, added to Facebook Messenger’s 43% , gave Meta – the parent company of both platforms – an overwhelming presence. Now, the distance with WhatsApp has been reduced considerably since it managed to keep 44% of the market in 2022.
Telegram seeks to seize the throne from WhatsApp
Although Telegram ‘s work in these last 5 years has been extremely remarkable, the truth is that the real turning point occurred at the beginning of 2021, when WhatsApp announced that it would change its privacy policies and terms of use for its users. This triggered harsh criticism against the Meta platform and thousands of people began to look for alternatives to avoid having to accept the new WhatsApp rules.
Because of this, Telegram and Signal -another messaging application that competes in this market- began to see their user bases grow rapidly due to migrations of users concerned about WhatsApp ‘s new measures . While Signal couldn’t keep up, Telegram was able to capitalize on the sudden success with improvements and tools that weren’t present on its rival’s platform as well as promising users that their personal data was safer with it.