Telegram To Hit One Billion Users Within A Year, Founder Says

The Telegram messaging app, one of the most popular social media platforms, will likely cross one billion active monthly users within a year as it spreads like a "forest fire," its billionaire founder Pavel Durov said, reported Fuy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelley for Reuters.

“Telegram is spreading like a forest fire."

Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.

"We'll probably cross one billion monthly active users within a year now," Durov, who fully owns Telegram, told US journalist Tucker Carlson according to a video interview posted on Carlson's account on the X social media platform.

“Telegram is spreading like a forest fire."

Durov, estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5 billion, said some governments had sought to pressure him but the app, which now has 900 million active users, should remain a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics."

One of Telegram's main rivals, Meta Platforms' WhatsApp, has more than two billion monthly active users.

The Financial Times reported in March that Telegram would likely aim for a US listing once the company had reached profitability.