Telegram's 2021 Achievements

The App Annie analytics company published a new report called "State of Mobile 2022" regarding mobile apps popularity and mobile services market development worldwide.

According to the bulletin, after closing the last year we can conclude that Telegram made these achievements:

— Telegram is 5th most downloaded app in the world.
— Telegram has 7th biggest monthly active users base worldwide.
— Telegram is 2nd most downloaded app in Russia, only losing to TikTok.
— The only country where Telegram is 1st most downloadable app is Spain.

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Telegram grows in China despite lockdown

Telegram's popularity in China began to grow in February 2020, when Chinese authorities tightened censorship of Covid-19 conversations on popular domestic platforms such as WeChat and Weibo. In search of alternative sources of information, some people turned to Telegram and others to Signal. Telegram installations in China grew 64% that month to 110,000 according to the Sensor Tower at the South China Morning Post, while Signal installations grew 70% to 17,000.

Telegram downloads also spiked last summer as former US President Donald Trump tried to ban WeChat in the US, prompting users to look for other ways to stay with friends and family in China. WeChat is normally the go-to tool for communicating with people in China, it is apparently used by everyone, and as a Chinese app, it works reliably within the country, but it must comply with local laws such as those that allow authorities to access the data of users who make some turn up their noses.

Reports our Chinese channel @tginfocn.

Read all the news about Telegram in Chinese at @tginfocn.

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Telegram in the top five most downloaded applications in the world

Pavel Durov said that Telegram in 2022, as in 2021, is again among the top five most downloaded applications in the world. Of these five most popular apps, Telegram is the only one that doesn't spend billions on marketing.

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Telegram's popularity in Russia has doubled since February

The number of users who accessed Telegram at least once a day in May has increased to 40 million by June, as Mediascope estimates. Since April, the metric has increased by almost 10 million users.

Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that were banned in Russia after the beginning of the war continue to lose users. If before the war in Ukraine, the average daily reach for Instagram in Russia was 39 million people, by mid-April it fell to 14.5 million, and by the end of May — to 11.7 million. Facebook's coverage collapsed from 6.7 million users per day first to 2.9 million people, and then to 1.9 million, as Mediascope estimates. The Meta Platforms (Facebook's mother company) was labeled as an extremist organization by the Russian government, thus, most of its services were banned. Despite, that, Russia avoids blocking WhatsApp, seeing its popularity in Russia.

In contrast, Telegram leads at filling the vacant niche. After beginning of the Russia's invasion into Ukraine, people's demand for information from various sides greatly increased. Telegram became the main platform where this information could be promptly obtained.

Graph of the growth of the top 20 Russian Telegram channels over 3 months.

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Spendings of Telegram in 2022

According to Forbes, now the messenger’s expenses are $540 million annually, or $45 million per month.

Over the past two years, Telegram's audience has grown from 400 to 700 million monthly active users, and the cost per user has grown from $0.55 to $0.77 per year.

According to Forbes, an increase in costs is inevitable due to increased user activity and rising costs of server hardware.

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Telegram among social media platforms used by China's COVID-19 protesters

People who protest against China's COVID-19 measures are using dating apps and social media platforms, including Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter, to organize protests and circumvent censorship. Protests against the measures have taken place in several cities across China over the past few days, and are believed to be the first instances of civil disobedience in the country since President Xi Jinping took power a decade ago.

While state media did not cover the protests and the government has made a very few statements, the Foreign Ministry has said that China is a country with the rule of law and that all the rights and freedoms of its citizens are protected within the law.

Some protesters are using VPN software to access encrypted messaging apps and are adopting a decentralized model to exchange information with close-knit networks of friends. Others are using dating apps hoping to avoid scrutiny and are sharing information about the protests on social media platforms. Police is reportedly checking phones for VPN apps and the Telegram app. According to Sensor Tower, Telegram has seen a significant increase in downloads in China during the protests.

Protesters are adopting decentralized models, similar to those used in the Hong Kong protests of 2019. People have also used social media platforms to share advice on what to do if arrested, such as how to erase data from phones.

Apple has limited the use of its AirDrop file-sharing function on devices in mainland China, restricting the ability of users to send or receive files from non-contacts to a 10-minute window. The move comes weeks after reports that protesters had used the feature to spread messages critical of the Chinese government. The restrictions do not appear to affect iPhones purchased outside China, though iOS beta imposes the restriction globally. The change has received mixed reactions in Chinese media, with some praising it for addressing the problem of nuisance messages on public transport, while others have accused Apple of appeasing the Chinese authorities. The US tech giant has faced similar accusations in the past, including pulling the Quartz app from its store in China during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.

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Telegram overtakes WhatsApp in Brazil

Telegram has taken first place in the Brazilian iOS App Store in the 'Social Networks' category, according to data from Sensor Tower for January 9th.

This growth is caused by protests against the results of the fall presidential elections. Among the protesters were supporters of the former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, who has almost 3 million subscribers in Telegram channel.

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