Telegram adds 25 million new users in 72 hours as users leave WhatsApp

Telegram announced that more than 25 million new users joined the platform in the last 72 hours alone in the wake of WhatsApp decision to change its Privacy policy which integrates data with Facebook platform starting February 8.

According to founder and CEO Pavel Durov, Telegram also surpassed 500 million monthly active users in the first week of January. He said the new users came from across the globe – 38% from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from latin America and 8% from MENA.

“This is a significant increase compared to last year, when 1.5 million new users signed up every day. We’ve had surges of downloads before, throughout our 7-year history of protecting user privacy. But this time is different,” he said.

Telegram recently revealed its intention to start earning revenue but added it would not compromise its customer’s privacy.

The service aims to introduce its own ad platform for public one-to-many channels.