Telegram has become the most popular messenger in Russia for the first time. This was reported in the press service of MegaFon, referring to data on its own subscribers (about 72 million people). Telegram officials declined to comment on the matter.
The report notes that the rapid growth in the popularity of Telegram in the country began on February 24. The company calculated that in the first two weeks of March, the share of Telegram in the total volume of messenger traffic increased from 48% to 63%. The press service of MegaFon did not announce more exact figures.
The rapid growth of Telegram’s popularity in Russia is due to the restrictions that have been took place on some other popular platforms. This month, the Russian government restricted access to Facebook and Instagram and demanded that the owner of these platforms, Meta, be recognized as an extremist organization.
According to available data, Telegram has also become a leader in terms of traffic consumed per day. According to MegaFon, one user spends 101 MB of traffic per day on Telegram, in the case of WhatsApp, the amount of traffic drops to 26 MB, and Viber users spend only 8 MB of traffic per day.
Gizchina News of the week
Telegram has become the most popular messenger in Russia recently
The fact that Telegram has become the most popular messenger in Russia in terms of traffic consumed was confirmed by Beeline. “The volume of user traffic in it today is 15 times more than in WhatsApp. In addition, since Telegram allows the transmission of messages, photos and videos of large sizes; it is also worth comparing it with the full Meta traffic, including Instagram. In this comparison, Telegram wins with a coefficient of 2.14, ”said a Beeline representative. He also noted that since the fall of 2020, WhatsApp traffic has decreased three times, while Telegram traffic has increased six times over the same period.
According to the Brazilian TV channel O Globo, citing the decision of Judge Alexandre de Moraes; the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil has withdrawn the decision to block the Telegram messenger in the country. The court decision says that the messenger has fully complied with the court’s orders; so its work in Brazil can continue.
Last week, Brazil’s Supreme Court ruled to restrict access to the app due to non-removal of prohibited content. After that, the creator of the messenger, Pavel Durov, explained this by an error with sending work letters. Durov also asked the Brazilian court to postpone the decision for several days; in order to give Telegram the opportunity to correct what happened.
