The popular messaging app Telegram has been downloaded more than a billion times worldwide. Telegram's entry into this elite club was announced by analytics company Sensor Tower.
In its report, Sensor Tower said Telegram had passed this milestone since Friday (27/8). Just like its main competitor, WhatsApp, India is the largest market for Telegram which accounts for 22% of the total installations.
"(India) is followed by Russia and Indonesia, which represent about 10% and 8% of the total installations," Sensor Tower said in its report, as quoted by TechCrunch, Tuesday (31/8/2021).
"App installs increased in 2021, reaching around 214.7 million installations in the first half of 2021, up 61% year-over-year from 133 million in H1 2020," he continued.
It should be noted that the number of downloads is not the same as the number of active users. Telegram previously announced that it has had 500 million monthly active users since the start of this year.
The soaring number of Telegram users in 2021 is influenced by several factors, one of which is WhatsApp's controversial latest privacy policy announcement. Since WhatsApp announced the policy earlier this year, their users who don't agree with the rule have immediately switched to Telegram and Signal.
Telegram itself was created by Pavel Durov in 2013. The application, which is now headquartered in Dubai, champions its privacy and security features that ensure that user data cannot be snooped on by anyone, including Telegram.
Based on Sensor Tower data, Telegram is the 15th application that has been downloaded more than one billion times worldwide. Other applications that have entered this elite club include WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify, and Netflix.
But Telegram's popularity is still far behind that of WhatsApp. Currently WhatsApp has been downloaded more than five billion times on Android alone, and has two billion active users worldwide.