How privacy concerns have made people rethink their choices towards messaging platforms?
Just In
The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov said that the company has raised more than $1 billion via bonds sales to several investors. The round included a combined investment by Mubadala Investment Co and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners of $150 million. Durov also said, as quoted by Reuters, “some of the largest and most knowledgeable investors from all over the world” took part in the funding round.
Signal’s Growth
This fundraising by Telegram comes at a time when the company is seeing an increase in its users this year. At present, the firm has 500 million monthly active users. The company has also showed strong growth in countries such as Egypt, Germany, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Apart from Telegram, Signal, another messaging app is also witnessing a surge in users. In the past few weeks, Signal has outpaced Telegram in global downloads on both the iOS and Android app store. According to SimilarWeb and TechCrunch, Signal had 40 million users in January 2021 and 105 million downloads in December 2020.
How Did This Happen?
The rise of Telegram and Signal comes because WhatsApp has been under fire for quite a while. Earlier in 2018, false rumours about child kidnappers sparked mob violence and killings in India, which pushed WhatsApp to limit message forwarding.
Then in January, WhatsApp announced users it was updating its privacy policy and terms of service. The update included details about how WhatsApp data could be used and shared when a user messages a business on the app. Post the announcement, the outrage over privacy on the platform started to surge. Some users thought the changes meant that the app could read their messages and listen to their personal phone calls.
Once this update came out, people started looking for alternatives, and they found Signal and Telegram. According to data from data analytics firm SensorTower, Signal installs surged 4,868% from January 1 to January 25 against December 7 to December 31. Elon Musk’s tweet ‘Use Signal’ and Edward Snowden’s, a former computer intelligence consultant, endorsement of the app also led to the latest jump in downloads. On the other hand, the downloads of WhatsApp plunged roughly 16% during the same period.
Zooming Out
Telegram and Signal are having a moment now. But will this affect WhatsApp? Maybe not. Even though people are worried about their privacy and are moving towards other messaging apps, it might take hundreds of millions to move out of WhatsApp to actually make a difference. Because WhatsApp is used by over 2 billion people in over 180 countries and more than 175 million people message a business on WhatsApp daily, allowing them to browse or buy items, ranging from cakes to flights.
So, even if a few million people choose to text via other apps, they will continue to use WhatsApp as their friends and families have been using the Facebook-owned app for several years. Hence, this uprising might not dent WhatsApp’s growth, but only the future can tell how the app’s journey will be.
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