On Tuesday, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, stated that the messaging app is expected to exceed one billion active monthly users within a year, likening its growth to a “forest fire.” Durov, based in Dubai, established Telegram after leaving Russia in 2014 due to his refusal to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he subsequently sold.
In an interview with U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson shared on Carlson’s X social media account, Durov, who fully owns Telegram, expressed confidence in its expansion, asserting that despite governmental pressures, the app—currently with 900 million active users—should remain a “neutral platform” rather than a “player in geopolitics.”
While Telegram’s main competitor, Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp, boasts over two billion monthly active users, Telegram, with significant influence in the former Soviet Union republics, is positioned as a major social media platform globally, alongside Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and WeChat.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has emerged as a primary source for unfiltered, albeit at times graphic and misleading, content from both sides concerning the conflict and its political ramifications.
