Telegram surpasses 950M users and announces app store plans

The cloud-based messaging software Telegram will launch its own app store by the end of July, as the company sees record users.

According to the founder Pavel Durov, Telegram has reached the 950 million active users mark and it aims to cross the one billion milestone this year.

This comes just four months after the company announced it had hit 900 million users in March.

In a message on the founder’s channel, posted on Monday (July 22) he explained how the momentum will continue for the brand: “To keep the fire going, this month, we will introduce a mini app store and an in-app browser with support for Web3-pages.”

Further details about the app store aren’t yet known, but information could be expected within the following week as the month will soon come to a close.

The milestone of users is another notch on the company’s belt as the founder explained to the Financial Times, back in March, how it’s nearing profitability. “We are hoping to become profitable next year, if not this year.”

Telegram reveal plan in message from founder

The company earns money through advertising and premium subscription services which were introduced two years ago as a way to stay independent.

Then, this year, Telegram started sharing ad revenue with channel owners by handing out the toncoin which is a token on the TON blockchain. Over the last few years, the Dubai-based team has focused on accelerating the adoption of web3 technology.

In the same message that featured the app store announcement, Durov said: “2024 will go down in history as the year when hundreds of millions of people became familiar with blockchain. We’re proud that Telegram is at the epicenter of this societal transformation.”

While the users are growing and ideas are expanding, the software has faced many scam attempts for a long time. The founder has addressed this and shared how the team is working to prevent this from occurring.

“We will also step up our efforts to fight the scammers seeking to defraud new entrants into the crypto realm. Soon, Telegram will begin displaying the month of registration and principal country for public accounts (similar to Instagram).

“We will also allow organizations to use their mini apps to issue labels for channels, creating a decentralized marketplace for third-party verification.”

Featured Image: Via Yuri Samoilov on Wikimedia Commons