Even as the app remains a favourite of the tech-savvy and privacy conscious users, the adoption of the messaging platform Telegram is on a decline in India, a market dominated by WhatsApp.
As the Indian government is reported to be investigating into the Telegram app and its founder faces legal trouble in France, data sourced by businessline from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower show that both downloads and daily active user base of Telegram have stagnated in India.
Fresh installs
In terms of fresh installs, Telegram has clocked 60 million downloads in India through 2024(YTD). While this is comparable to 2023’s full year downloads at 81 million, in 2022 the app had 92 million downloads, and this was at 108 million in 2021. Similarly, Telegram’s average DAU (Daily Active User) base in India for is down 2 per cent so far this year, is up 9 per cent compared to average DAUs of 2021, Sensor Tower data showed. The app has also not climbed the ranking charts across app stores and is stuck at the third spot in Apple store and at 5th spot in Google’s Play store in the communication and social networks category of apps.
However, industry data show India is still the biggest market for Telegram by user base and is followed by Russia, Indonesia and the US. But, WhatsApp overtakes Telegram in monthly user base by a large margin.
Analysts note that Telegram, which got a big boost in 2021 as a privacy policy change by WhatsApp led to a temporary user churn, has not capitalised on the momentum in India. On the other hand, WhatsApp has undertaken aggressive marketing in last one year and also launched Telegram-like features, they add.
Youngsters’ needs
The founder of a digital marketing firm said Telegram initially was suited for youngsters’ needs to be part of communities, but WhatsApp’s recent launches of Channels and Communities option tapped into that need. Telegram has also been preferred for its ease of use across multiple devices but WhatsApp’s network effects is hard to beat, the person added.
Telegram’s support to sharing large-size files is driving its key use cases in India. The use of Telegram is popular among students for sharing exam preparation materials, listing of deals on e-commerce platforms, and also sharing large media files including full length movies. Entrepreneurs leverage the bots feature of the app for marketing.
However, these features has also aided the platform’s brush with nefarious activities, cyber-security specialists note.
“With size of content moderation teams at a fraction of what it is in WhatsApp and other platforms, Telegram has managed to attract cyber criminals to its platform,” Rahul Tyagi, co-founder, Safe Security, said. “IP theft is also one of its biggest problems whereby large media files such as educational materials, books, and even full movies are available on Telegram groups,” he added. Telegram also ranks low on content moderation and turnaround times in user reports of abuse, he adds.
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