Telegram overtook WhatsApp in terms of audience size in March, becoming the most popular messenger in Russia. This was reported by the press service of the telecom operator Megafon.
After analyzing mobile Internet traffic using Big Data tools, MegaFon found out that the share of WhatsApp decreased from 48% to 32%. Instagram Facebook and Facebook messenger from Mark Zuckerberg and the “brother” of the social networks currently blocked in Russia now occupy the second place in the country in terms of traffic volume. The share of Viber has also decreased by 1%, the indicator of which is now 4%.
But the share of Telegram in the first half of March in the total volume of traffic among messengers increased from 48% to 63% compared to the first two weeks of February. In MegaFon, the increased popularity of Telegram is explained not only by the restrictions on access to other social networks and messengers that have appeared. In the current realities, Telegram is both a communication tool and one of the main sources of information.
Telegram is also in the lead in terms of daily mobile traffic consumption: one user spends 101 MB of traffic on this service on average, while 26 MB is enough for WhatsApp fans, and 8 MB for Viber supporters.
At the same time, the popularity of Telegram is growing almost throughout Russia, it leads in the number of users in 82 regions of Russia. The exceptions are only three subjects of the North Caucasus – Karachay-Cherkessia, Dagestan and Chechnya, where the majority of subscribers still prefer WhatsApp.
The fact that Telegram has become the most popular messenger in Russia in terms of the volume of traffic consumed was confirmed in Beeline. “The volume of user traffic in it today is 15 times more than in WhatsApp. In addition, since Telegram allows the transmission of messages, photos and videos of large sizes, it is also worth comparing it with the full Meta traffic, including Instagram. In this comparison, Telegram wins with a coefficient of 2.14,” the representative of Beeline said. He also noted that since the fall of 2020, WhatsApp traffic has decreased threefold, while Telegram traffic has increased sixfold over the same period.