Telegram witnesses one billion global downloads, highest number of users in India

Telegram has achieved the milestone of 1 billion downloads globally. The WhatsApp rival messaging application was launched back in 2013, and it wasn't until January 2021 that it saw a surge in downloads. The London-based company benefited from a recent backlash faced by WhatsApp over its chaotic privacy policy update. Additionally, India accounts for more than 22% of Telegram's lifetime downloads, which makes it the largest market for Telegram.

Telegram crosses 1 billion global downloads, has the largest market in India 

According to a Sensor Tower report, Telegram surpassed the 1 billion downloads mark on Friday, August 27, 2021. Other applications to recently cross the 1 billion download threshold are WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Snapchat and Netflix. Additionally, the report also says that India is the largest market for Telegram in the world, accounting for over 22% of lifetime downloads of the application. For reference, the number of downloads in the Indian market is over 200 million. The second-largest market share in Russia, followed by Indonesia, holding 10% and 8% users respectively.

The messaging application has an active user base of over 500 million people

In the first half of 2021, the application saw more than 210 million installs, which is a 61% year-on-year increase from the number of installs in the first half of 2020, which was 133 million. The Sensor Tower report via TechCrunch also mentions that the number of downloads is not equal to Telegram's active user base, which is close to 500 million users. Even with the increase in downloads and global user base, Telegram has a lot of catching up in order to beat WhatsApp, which has over 2 billion active users in the world. 

The increase in downloads was pumped by WhatsApp new privacy policy 

It is important to note that Telegram experienced a sudden increase in downloads recently when WhatsApp launched a new privacy policy. Owing to the confusing nature of its privacy policy, WhatsApp had to face a lot of criticism. Following the backlash, users looked for alternatives to the messaging application and migrated to Telegram and other messaging applications that claim to keep user's data safe with end-to-end encryption. The concern regarding privacy was strong enough to drive over 25 million users to Telegram is just three days from when WhatsApp announced its new privacy policy. Stay tuned for more tech news.