Telegram Hits 100 Million Users

Telegram, the encrypted messaging app that launched in 2013, now has 100 million monthly active users, “Armenpress” reports. In a blog post announcing the milestone, the company said 350,000 new users are joining the service every day, and that 15 billion messages are sent on the app daily. Telegram founder Pavel Durov revealed the company’s latest figures at a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress on February 23.

Telegram has seen sharp growth in recent months, adding 38 million monthly active users since May, though it still trails other messaging apps by a large margin. Earlier this month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp reached the 1 billion monthly active user mark, while Facebook Messenger reached 800 million monthly active users in January.

Prior to creating Telegram with his brother, Durov founded VKontakte (VK), Russia’s most popular social network.

“I side with Tim Cook,” Durov told The Financial Times. “Society in each country has to decide whether they want to make this trade-off, between privacy and what is perceived as high security and lower risk of terrorism.”