Virendra Pandit
Mumbai: Instant messaging app WhatsApp never had it so bad. Now part of the Facebook stable, WhatsApp has lost a whopping 25 million users to new challenger, Telegram, within 72 hours all over the world.
In 2020, WhatsApp had over two billion monthly active users, including 400 million (40 crores) in India.
With the new inflow, Telegram has now clocked 500 million active users globally.
This ‘mass conversion’ began with WhatsApp doing, what some experts have felt is a ‘data colonization’. Ever since WhatsApp scared users about their privacy policy, they began to shift to alternative messaging apps like Telegram and Signal.
For WhatsApp, which ruled the world of instant messaging unchallenged until recently, it is a major setback that 25 million new active users joined the privacy-focused Telegram within the last 72 hours, pushing the challenger’s user base beyond the 500 million mark.
This sudden spike in angry users shifting loyalty came after the Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced their new controversial Privacy Policy and Terms of Use on January 7 with pop-up alerts for users, stating that it would come into force from February 8, 2021. This panicked users about their data tracking and sharing, amounting to what many felt was a lawful ‘data-theft’ with their own consent!
This made them scramble in their search for an alternative to WhatsApp.
No doubt, in terms of numbers, WhatsApp still rules the messaging services’ world. But the fresh trends point to the shape of things to come. After Signal, Telegram has now become the second most popular app on the Apple App Store for iPhone users, pushing WhatsApp down to the third place in terms of downloads, media reported.
Of the 25 million new users just downloading Telegram, 38 percent came from Asia, 27 percent from Europe, 21 percent from Latin America, and 8 percent from the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region, media reported, quoting an official update shared on Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s channel.
“With half a billion active users and accelerating growth, Telegram has become the largest refuge for those seeking a communication platform committed to privacy and security. We take this responsibility very seriously. We won’t let you down,” he added.
The exodus from WhatsApp began when the users came to know that their data is and will continue to be shared with Facebook and other Facebook products as well as services. This will include tracking user behavior to personalize the app behavior and to serve personalized suggestions as well as advertisements targeted at the user.
WhatsApp also said it tracks user location data at all times, and even if the user is smart enough to turn off location access for WhatsApp on Android phone or Apple iPhone, the app still collects and logs IP addresses and phone number codes to estimate his/her general location.
WhatsApp claimed this was meant for diagnostics and troubleshooting. But few believed and decided to dump WhatsApp.