The founder claims that Telegram will reach one billion users in a year.

According to founder Pavel Durov, Telegram wants to stay a "neutral platform" and not a "player in geopolitics," with 900 million active users as of right now.

In statements released on Tuesday, April 16, the inventor of Telegram, a messaging app that is among the most widely used social media sites in Russia and Ukraine, predicted that the app will surpass one billion active monthly users in less than a year.

In a rare interview, US journalist Tucker Carlson was informed by Pavel Durov that the free cloud-based service, which is hosted in Dubai and lets users transmit and receive calls, texts, and other files, is spreading like a "forest fire." 

"We'll probably cross 1 billion monthly active users within a year now," Telegram's sole owner, Dmitry Durov, stated to Tucker in a video interview that was uploaded on Tucker's X social media account.

With 900 million active users as of right now, the app wants to maintain its status as a “neutral platform” and avoid becoming a “player in geopolitics,” according to Durov. The businessman, who was born in Russia, claimed he left the country in 2014 due to intervention from the government in a company he started.

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Meta Platforms' WhatsApp is one of Telegram's primary competitors. When Telegram became profitable, the Financial Times predicted in March that the business will probably pursue a US listing.

In both Russia and Ukraine, practically all of the main media, governmental organizations, and public figures run Telegram content channels.

The app has daily video speeches from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as alerts about impending air attacks and updates on events on the front lines. 

However, detractors claimed that the software has also developed into a tool for deceit and manipulation. More stringent regulations for Telegram and other social networks are the subject of a bill that was presented to the Ukrainian parliament in March.

News source:

https://www.rappler.com/technology/apps/telegram-platform-hit-billion-users-within-year/