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Writer's picturePeter DiSilvio

It’s not Western Union but It Is A Telegram

All that’s old is new again with the rise of the new messaging app, Telegram! While you can still send someone an old school telegram, a message via telegraph wire, this app is all digital and growing at a break neck pace!

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a free instant messaging service that provided end-to-end encription video calling, file sharing, and other features. Launches in August of 2013 the app has ballooned up to 500 million users worldwide. The app is so popular it is seen as the main alternative to Meta's WhatsApp.

Like WhatsApp, Telegram has also the ability to show a friend’s status online and attach and share photos, videos, location, contacts and documents. The key difference between WhatsApp and Telegram, at least according to Telegram spokesman, is the commitment to users privacy and their data collection policy.


Who Uses Telegram?

Telegram boasts an impressive 55.2 million daily; 58.6% of which are male with the remaining 41.4% are female [1]. Users under the age of 24 make up a third of the platforms audience which makes sense when you consider the popularity of WhatsApp and SnapChat, also instant messaging applications, with the same demographics. Despite this popularity, Telegram has not caught on in the United States like its competitors.


Telegram ranks 10th in instant messaging services in the United States behind Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Discord, and others [2]. The vast majority of the Platforms users come from abroad with 38% of users are based in Asia, 27% in Europe, 21% from Latin America, and 8% from the Middle East and North Africa as of 2021 data [3].


The Future of Telegram

Advertising is the obvious next step for Telegram so as to monetize the traffic the service gets each day. "The app will be bringing in-app ads to larger groups and channels while keeping private chats and private groups ad-free. The app also plans to keep its current feature-set free of cost but is set to add on premium, paid features for business and power users later on. [The founder also recently]... mentioned in [a] post that Telegram will continue to remain an independent company, adding that the steps the app is taking will help keep the company going forward" [4].


In 2016 they launched Telegraph, a blogging platform, which will offer fast publishing and anonymous posting without requiring users to register an account or sign in through social media.

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