Telegram says 25 million joined in last 72 hours; crosses 500 million users

Durov also shared the demographics of Telegram’s recently joined users. “These new users came from across the globe – 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA,” he added in his post.

How will Telegram change, now that it has 500 million active users?

Durov had mentioned in a previous post, the app’s new monetisation plans for the future. The plans included bringing premium paid features for business and power users while keeping all existing Telegram features free of cost. The app also plans on bringing ads to the platform, but only for large groups and channels, keeping private chats and groups ad-free.

“It will allow us to keep innovating and keep growing for decades to come. We will be able to launch countless new features and welcome billions of new users. While doing that, we will remain independent and stay true to our values, redefining how a tech company should operate,” mentioned Durov in the post, dated December 23, 2020.

The post had hinted that Telegram would implement its monetisation plans as the app touched the 500 million users mark. Now that it has, it remains to be seen how soon the premium features and channel ads come to the platform. We should get more updates on the same from Telegram soon.

From the homepage

In Bihar poll results tomorrow, 3 pillars of NDA’s hopes: Nitish, Mahila vote, social arithmetic edge

Mahagathbandhan’s calculation: Caste maths, with Tejashwi as a plus

How Japan shrugged off its Rare Earths dependency on China