Telegram Hits 400M Monthly Active Users (techcrunch.com) 32
Instant messaging service Telegram has amassed 400 million monthly active users, it said today, up from 300 million active users the seven-year-old service disclosed to the SEC last October. From a report: The service -- founded by Pavel Durov, who also created Russian social networking site VK -- said it adds about 1.5 million users each day and is the most downloaded social media app in over 20 nations. Telegram is working on bringing a secure video call feature to its users this year in response to the growing popularity of Zoom and Houseparty, it said. The company, headquartered in Dubai, however, did not talk about the future of its Gram cryptocurrency wallet and TON Blockchain that it had revealed in 2018 but put on hold early this year. "As the gap in popularity between Telegram and its older competitors narrows, we find more and more validity in that original assumption," the firm said in a blog post.
Re: More trump bashing, please (Score:1)
But you're already doing it!
(By linking him to your insanity and trolling.)
I feel old (Score:2)
I remember times when 400 million telegrams were sent per day.
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Telegram and signal should merge (Score:2)
Re: Telegram and signal should merge (Score:3)
It's called XMPP with OMEMO.
Signal already offers federation.
Anyone is welcome to join.
Telegram is the one with lacking security and closed source that doesn't join.
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Telegram & Signal are both centralized. Matrix is decentralized and has all the good sides of both while being open also on server side. Check Matrix out.
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No thanks, it’s too weak on privacy (Score:5, Interesting)
Telegram is terrible on encryption. From its own faq: “Default messages and media in Telegram are encrypted when stored on its servers, but can be accessed by the Telegram service provider, who holds the encryption keys. In addition Telegram provides optional end-to-end encrypted "secret" chats between two online users, yet not for groups or channels.”
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Telegram is terrible on encryption.
There's a specific reason for it. It's a capable platform which allows additional features like the creation of bots which requires the ability to access messages. This is not an appropriate platform for arranging a meeting with an FBI agent posing as a young girl. Not every service, not every system and above all not every message needs to be encrypted to protect you from those nefarious evils who are lining up to do untold things to you as you ask your wife if you need to bring home some milk.
My wife setu
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Well, Snowden happened. As did centralization effect of the internet.
Last time I checked... (Score:3)
Telegram wasn't even encrypting by default at all.
Apart from its source not being open.
Don't get me wrong, feature-wise, Telegam is really great. But without the above ... what's the point?
(Oh, and before you got TelegRUSSIAm, with which I don't disagree, consider WhatsNSApp and TreemHELVETICA, with which you should not disagree. [No need to agree too.])
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I want to know where Telegram gets its money. You need serious infrastructure to hold 400M users, and the app is free, closed source, and doesn't display ads.
What nation-state is funneling money into it?
Disclosure: I'm a telegram user. I found it very useful to receive notifications from my 3D printers and other bots I created.
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$1.7 billion should last for some time: https://www.coindesk.com/teleg... [coindesk.com]
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But without the above ... what's the point?
I know right. I need 100% secure encryption when I ask my wife if she needs me to bring home milk. Those damn Russians may be on to my milk buying game and be waiting for me at the store.
What is the point of anything when it's not 100% securely encrypted.
I actually wish you'd encrypt your posts before hitting submit. They may look a bit less ignorant if it was just a bunch of random looking letters.
So it finally hit 1 million (Score:1)
Make me feel better about Telegram (Score:2)
I love using Telegram as it provides all the features I liked about Facebook's Messenger but without the Facebook. But developed by a Russian and based in Dubai sends signals up for me (yes, probably irrational signals).
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Developed by a Russian who had to flee Russia because he refused to give Russian state internal access to Telegram. Dubai sounds like a place where Russians can't get to him, but also distant enough from NSA/CIA snoops who would really want that access too.
That said, we almost certainly know that there is some interaction between US intelligence and Telegram because some time ago a certain islamic terror group claimed that some of their people got traced through telegram accounts, and Telegram is officially
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Thanks for the info! I'm actually more concerned with supporting state sponsored software than I am with the idea of a state sponsored group (i.e. CIA) being able to access the platform. Someone did bring up the question of how Telegram makes it's money, which I would be interested in knowing too.
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They had crypto offerings that raised something like 1,7 billion total back in 2018. They have been coasting on that money since.
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Oh damn! That's pretty sweet.....for now. I hope they are able to stay independent. I'd certainly be willing to pay for the app in order to keep them that way.
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I did the math back in the day that even if they have a 100 million yearly budget, which would be a lot for a smaller chat+crypto company, they can coast on that money for almost two decades.
Telegram is likely funded for a very long time. The better question is, who are the people that invested in it and does crypto ownership grant them any kind of control over company itself. I doubt it, but with sums like that, you never know.
Still, it's worlds better than most alternatives.
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But developed by a Russian and based in Dubai sends signals up for me (yes, probably irrational signals).
Actually you're sending signals to them, not just sending signals up. But to what effect on you? Those damn Russians knowing you're planning on going to the movies, or that you send schmoozy messages to your girl? If you want to keep your dick picks away from anyone other than the FBI agent posing as a 10 year old girl while you're trying to buy weapons for your next terrorist attack on the bitcoin laundering exchange that caused you to not get your delivery of illicit drugs, Telegram probably isn't a servi
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I'm more concerned with supporting any software sponsored by the Russians. Same reason why I'll never use Tik Tok. I don't have anything anyone wants to look at any ways.
Brookings Institute is a Qatari front operation (Score:1)