As soon as comparatively beneath the radar, messaging app Telegram has lately surged into the highlight following the arrest of its CEO, Pavel Durov. Whereas it’s attracted little consideration within the West till now, it has round a billion customers worldwide, and is likely one of the fastest-growing social media apps on the earth.
Its progress is very outstanding provided that it is run by a workforce of fewer than 50 individuals and has been utterly natural – Telegram has by no means achieved any type of paid promoting to advertise the app.
Correct and dependable details about it may be arduous to come back by, however at GWI, we’ve been monitoring Telegram in our Core survey since 2015, so we’ve received a reasonably good view on who makes use of it and why. Learn on to discover who precisely makes use of it, the place it’s hottest, and what motivates its customers.
Right here’s all the things you’ll want to find out about Telegram.
What’s Telegram?
Telegram is a cloud-based, cross-platform social media and prompt messaging app. Its core performance is broadly just like WhatsApp, WeChat, Line, or Viber. It was based by Pavel Durov in 2013, a Russian entrepreneur who had already arrange the social community VK (generally known as the Russian Fb).
Telegram has round 1 billion customers around the globe.
How does Telegram work?
Telegram is a cloud-based app, that means all messages and media are saved on its servers, moderately than particular person gadgets. That is what permits the app for use seamlessly throughout completely different gadgets.
Messages will be despatched to different Telegram customers, in teams, or on Channels – one-way communication instruments the place admins submit messages to a vast variety of subscribers.
By default, Telegram presents encryption between a message sender and its servers, that means that third-parties can not see messages, although technically Telegram has entry to them. Customers can choose in to “Secret Chats”, that are end-to-end encrypted, which Telegram can’t see in any respect.
How does Telegram examine to different social media apps
Whereas its broad performance is essentially the identical as different apps, Telegram’s options and market positioning make it stand out from the competitors.
Telegram shops messages and media within the cloud, permitting customers to entry conversations throughout a number of gadgets, with out utilizing cupboard space on their telephone. In comparison with different apps like WhatsApp and Sign, it’s additionally extra versatile with file sizes and group chats. Customers can ship a lot larger recordsdata to one another than most competitor apps, and Channels and Supergroups enable customers to ship messages to extra individuals directly. This benefit in one-to-many communication makes it engaging for content material creators and information publications who need to replace many individuals concurrently.
Telegram additionally positions itself as a privacy-focused app, although there’s nuance to this. Some privateness specialists argue that as a result of its encryption isn’t open-source and never turned on by default, it’s not as safe as different apps like WhatsApp or Sign. Then again, you might argue that Telegram distinguishes itself by promising by no means to share any person information with governments or legislation enforcement. David Thiel, chief technologist on the Stanford Web Observatory, says that Telegram markets person privateness and free speech not via its expertise, however by its habits.
This would possibly change, although. Shortly after his arrest, Pavel Durov introduced an replace to the platform’s phrases of service and privateness coverage which can hand over metadata to authorities who’ve search warrants or different legitimate authorized requests.
This may need a unfavourable impression on model notion, however then once more – privateness may not truly be that large of a deal in deciding whether or not individuals use it or not.
Why do individuals use Telegram?
Is privateness the primary cause individuals use it? It’d be simple to imagine so, however as is usually the case with shopper analysis, there’s usually a bit extra to it. The precise causes customers undertake it may be fairly completely different, and generally even stunning.
The principle cause why individuals use Telegram – like every social media service – is as a result of different persons are on it. We all know from our GWI USA information set that the most well-liked cause to make use of social media by far is “conserving in contact with associates / household”. Community results (the place the worth of a service goes up the extra individuals use it) are extraordinarily highly effective, which is why creating a brand new social media service from the bottom up is extremely arduous.
4 in 10 customers outdoors of China use Telegram. If we take an viewers of people that fear about how firms use their private information, it’s nonetheless 4 in 10 that use it. In different phrases, how you are feeling about privateness makes little distinction as to whether or not you utilize the app.
So if Telegram’s largest customers aren’t privacy-conscious customers, who’re they?
Telegram statistics, developments and information value figuring out
Following Durov’s arrest, consideration turned to prison or unethical actions that happen on the platform. However the app’s person base is gigantic – nearly a billion month-to-month lively customers in whole. The overwhelming majority of those shall be utilizing Telegram for a similar causes that individuals use most social media apps – for the fairly mundane causes of speaking to family and friends. As Durov himself places it, “99.999% of Telegram customers don’t have anything to do with crime”.
How many individuals use Telegram?
For those who exclude China (which has a really completely different social media ecosystem), Telegram is presently utilized by 43% of the worldwide on-line inhabitants. It’s been one of many fastest-growing companies worldwide in the previous few years, with its variety of customers rising by 31% since 2020.
What international locations use Telegram
Because it’s not one of many most-used messaging apps within the UK or US, it’s simple to miss how widespread it’s in different components of the world. It’s utilized by over half the net inhabitants in international locations as various as Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, India, and Brazil, whereas in its native Russia, over three-quarters use it, making it the most well-liked messaging app within the nation total.
Whereas it’s hottest within the world south, it’s made inroads in different components of the world. In Italy, for instance, it’s utilized by 47% of customers. And whereas Western markets have been slower to undertake, Telegram is seeing a few of its largest progress within the English-speaking world, with its person base greater than doubling in Canada and the UK since 2020.
What demographics/generations of individuals use Telegram?
The Telegram viewers is a basic early adopter sort – predominantly younger males in cities who’ve a excessive degree of schooling. They’re customers who see themselves as formidable, adventurous risk-takers – with an curiosity in tech, who usually work in tech themselves, and are snug taking the plunge with new services and products like cryptocurrency. The professions probably to make use of it are software program builders (53%) and net builders (52%).
Telegram’s largest progress markets
With Telegram’s robust progress in the previous few years, the app has began to develop from its base of early adopters to different teams. Listed here are some audiences seeing significantly fast uptake of the app (with the % progress of every viewers’s Telegram customers since 2020):
- Rural areas, together with the East Midlands of England (+262%), Iowa (+226%), and Normandy (+177%).
- Data employees, like writers (+119%) and bankers (+97%).
- Ethnic minorities, together with Black British customers (+250%), and Asian-Individuals (+200%).
Is Telegram secure to make use of?
Whereas arresting a platform’s CEO is a big escalation, it’s unlikely to be the final phrase in a long-standing debate round social media – the place does free speech finish and person security start?
It’s a state of affairs the place customers want to have their cake and eat it too. 62% suppose free speech extends to on-line areas (like social media), however 50% of customers suppose governments ought to oversee content material produced on these sorts of platforms. Customers need the liberty to say what they need on-line, however a very good quantity additionally need the authorities to step in to guard them from dangerous content material.
It’s a tough bind with out an apparent resolution. The one factor that’s sure is no matter occurs with Telegram, it’s not the final we’ll hear about this subject.
Closing ideas
Pavel Durov’s arrest has made Telegram a lightning rod for broader subjects. Even earlier than this newest flashpoint, regulators had known as for the app to be banned or carried out non permanent blocks.
However Telegram is only one a part of a a lot larger puzzle. The overwhelming majority of its person base use it for fairly customary causes. It’s an vital communication software for a whole bunch of tens of millions of individuals around the globe, notably on each side of the Russia-Ukraine battle. Its give attention to privateness and historic refusal at hand over person information is what permits it for use by political dissidents, because it was in Belarus following a contested election in 2020. In Uzbekistan, Telegram is a vital layer of communication for companies, organizations and even the President to speak with individuals.
Even within the worst-case situation, whereby Telegram turns into completely blocked particularly jurisdictions, it’s probably that many unhealthy actors on the platform will merely transfer elsewhere.
Telegram FAQs
Why do individuals use Telegram?
Each person could have their very own causes, however the basic clarification is identical for some other social media app – its customers really feel it offers a greater service than its opponents, and since different persons are on it. Whereas privateness is a cornerstone of its advertising, it’s unlikely to be a decisive issue for many.
Why do individuals use Telegram as an alternative of texting?
Like different messaging apps, Telegram has further performance to texting companies – for instance, it’s simpler to share giant recordsdata on the app.
It’s additionally probably that in some components of the world, messaging apps are most popular to texting as a result of they’re more cost effective. Whereas textual content messages could also be charged per message despatched via the mobile community, messages despatched via an app are distributed via the web, and so are lined by an information bundle, or wifi. In apply, this makes them a extra inexpensive possibility for a lot of.
How safe is the Telegram app?
It relies upon the way you outline it. On a technical degree, it doesn’t provide the always-on encryption that different messaging apps do, and its encryption isn’t thought to be extremely as different choices. However alternatively, some customers could really feel it’s Telegram’s habits – promising to not share any information with third events – that ensures their safety. However this can be sophisticated by the app altering its phrases of service following Durov’s arrest, whereby metadata will be shared with authorities that possess search warrants.
