FB - Telegram's Rapid Growth Is Bad News for Facebook's WhatsApp
Privacy-focused messaging app Telegram continues its torrid streak of user growth. On Tuesday, founder Pavel Durov announced the service had grown to more than 500 million active users. That's an impressive total, but the acceleration in its growth has been particularly noteworthy: In the 72 hour-period before Tuesday's announcement, the service added 8.3 million daily users versus 1.5 million daily adds in the prior year.
Telegram still significantly trails Facebook 's (NASDAQ: FB) WhatsApp, which boasts 2 billion users, but the upstart is slowly chipping away at that lead. Although Telegram was founded nearly eight years ago, 25% of its user growth has occurred in the last nine months.
The company can thank a WhatsApp misstep for the most recent growth explosion. In the short run, this is bad news for WhatsApp but Facebook investors shouldn't worry... yet.
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Telegram's Rapid Growth Is Bad News for Facebook's WhatsApp