When WhatsApp announced a new privacy policy in the Q1 of 2021, it created an uproar among the users. People started shifting to the new instant messaging platform including Telegram, Signal, and others. Among all these apps, Telegram took the maximum advantage of negative publicity against Whatsapp, the most popular instant messaging app in the world. As per the latest report of Sensor Tower, Telegram has crossed 1 billion installations globally.
Telegram Tops 1 Billion Downloads
Sensor Tower is an online platform that keeps track of the app downloads data. As per the latest data report, Telegram, an instant messaging app, is continuing its golden run and now has completed 1 billion downloads globally.
Launched in 2013, the Dubai-headquartered app achieved the above landmark on Friday, the mobile insight firm told TechCrunch. The Sensor Tower data further reveals that India has contributed a maximum of 1 billion downloads of Telegram.
India has approximately 22 percent share in the lifetime downloads of Telegram. WhatsApp, the main rival of Telegram, also has the largest market in India. As is the case with the app’s chief rival, WhatsApp, India is the largest market for Telegram. India is also the second-largest internet market in the world.
Related to the latest Telegram statistics, Sensor Tower further added, “[India is] followed by Russia and Indonesia, which represent about 10% and 8% of [all installs], respectively. The app’s installs accelerated in 2021, reaching about 214.7 million installs in the first half of 2021, up 61% year-over-year from 133 million in H1 2020.”
Further Details about Telegram and other Statistics
As soon as WhatsApp’s new policy notification came into the public domain during the second week of January 2021, Telegram downloads skyrocketed to 500 million. On 13 January 2021, the Company CEO claims that the instant messaging platform has recorded a whopping 25 million new downloads within the last 72 hrs. It also became the most downloaded non-gaming app in January 2021 due to the sudden spike in its userbase.
In his official message to all Telegram users, the Telegram support team said, “the app has crossed the 500 million users mark. In the last 3 days, a whopping 25 million users downloaded the telegram app. It all became possible by users like you who encouraged friends and family members to use Telegram. Thank you all!”
Total downloads of any app don’t mean that it has the same number of the active userbase. Some users may install the app, and later they may not use it without uninstalling it. But, Telegram has utilized the negative campaign against Whatsapp very well and it also informed its users that Telegram will take care of the privacy of its users.
Telegram also raised over $1 billion in 2021. Currently, it is the fifteenth app globally to have been downloaded 1 billion times or more, Sensor Tower told TechCrunch. WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, and Netflix are the other popular apps that have 1+ billion downloads worldwide, according to Sensor Tower. It is worth noting that Sensor Tower doesn’t track the installs of most Google apps since they all are pre-installed on Android devices.