- Telegram reached 1 billion monthly active users, its CEO said.
- CEO Pavel Durov took a shot at WhatsApp, calling it “a cheap, watered-down imitation of Telegram.”
- Durov has been allowed to leave France after being held on charges of failing to curb extremist content.
Telegram just hit the massive milestone of 1 billion monthly active users.
As CEO Pavel Durov shared the news on his personal Telegram channel, he also took a direct shot at his biggest competitor, Meta-owned WhatsApp, which has over 2 billion monthly active users.
“Ahead of us stands WhatsApp — a cheap, watered-down imitation of Telegram,” he wrote. “For years, they’ve desperately tried to copy our innovations while burning billions on lobbying and PR campaigns to slow us down. They failed. Telegram grew, became profitable, and —unlike our competitor — retained its independence.”
He added in the post that the company has also raked in $547 million in profit in 2024.
Durov’s swipe at his rival came just after he was allowed to return to Dubai after being held in France for months.
The CEO was arrested in August 2024 after landing in Paris on his private jet. French authorities charged him with multiple offenses, including “complicity” in the distribution of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking on Telegram while refusing to cooperate with the authorities’ investigation into the platform. He was released on a $5.6 million bail.
Durov has denied the accusations and wrote in a statement on his Telegram channel on September 5, 2024, that holding him responsible for crimes committed by third parties on the platform was both a “surprising” and “misguided approach.”
Initially, Durov was barred from leaving France. But the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed that his judicial restrictions were temporarily lifted from March 15 to April 7, allowing him to travel again. No details were given about the conditions of his release or if he will be required to return.
“The process is ongoing but it feels great to be home,” said Durov in a post on his Telegram channel on Monday.
Since its launch in 2013 by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, Telegram has positioned itself as a privacy-first alternative to mainstream messaging apps, with end-to-end encryption for video calls and secret chats that gained a following in countries where speech is more limited.
Since Durov’s arrest, Telegram has made some major policy changes, including joining the Internet Watch Foundation — a group that helps identify and remove child sex abuse content — and publishing transparency reports that detail how much content it removed, which is a common industry practice.
Telegram also announced in September 2024 that it will start sharing IP addresses and phone numbers of offenders with law enforcement when legally required to do so.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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