25 million new users join Telegram in past 72 hours globally

In the first week of January, messaging platform Telegram surpassed 500 million monthly active users. It has continued to grow with 25 million new users joining Telegram in the last 72 hours alone. These new users are from across the globe – 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA.

In a recent blog post Telegram’s CEO and Founder Pavel Durov says, “This is a significant increase compared to last year, when 1.5M new users signed up every day. We’ve had surges of downloads before, throughout our 7-year history of protecting user privacy. But this time is different.”

“People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services. They no longer want to be held hostage by tech monopolies that seem to think they can get away with anything as long as their apps have a critical mass of users.”

“With half a billion active users and accelerating growth, Telegram has become the largest refuge for those seeking a communication platform committed to privacy and security. We take this responsibility very seriously. We won’t let you down.”

“Those of you who have used Telegram for the last several years know we’ve been consistent both when it comes to defending private data and to improving our apps. For those of you who just joined and are wondering what Telegram stands for, I’d like to quote.”

He further added, “You – our users – have been and will always be our only priority. Unlike other popular apps, Telegram doesn’t have shareholders or advertisers to report to. We don’t do deals with marketers, data miners or government agencies. Since the day we launched in August 2013 we haven’t disclosed a single byte of our users’ private data to third parties. We operate this way because we don’t regard Telegram as an organization or an app. For us, Telegram is an idea; it is the idea that everyone on this planet has a right to be free.”

Telegram messenger is focused on its mission to empower common people by providing them the best quality in security, privacy and seamless connectivity while they are communicating, the company said in a statement. With its current growth rate, Telegram is on track to reach billions of users in the near future.