Facebook Messenger Risks Losing To Telegram, As New Payment Subscription Emerges

Telegram is looking poised to surpass Facebook messenger userbase, as it reaches 700 million monthly active users. The growth of the firm reflects the intense competition in the global messenger app markets.

WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook messenger, and Telegram are competing for 6.64 billion smartphone users who are seeking better messaging platforms to communicate with relatives and friends.

Howeve, despite the hot race, WhatsApp is miles ahead of its rivals, housing over two million monthly active users globally, against WeChat’s 1.2 billion users, Facebook Messenger’s 988 million userbase and Telegram at the tail end with 700 million.

According to Telegram, it has been able to achieve the feet with burning cash on marketing or advertisement. Instead, the company wants users to be at the pillar of the firm’s growth, and this has led to it launching a premium service on the platform.

Telegram stated that the premium service will offer new features that users on the messaging app have been requesting for over the years, which includes unlock doubled limits, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, as well as improved chat management.

The firm disclosed that the premium offer will enable Telegram maintain its free service and have access to some paid-for features, rather than monetise the entire usage of the messaging app.

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Telegram statement reads, “The contributions of premium subscribers will help improve and expand the app for decades to come, while Telegram will remain free, independent and uphold its users-first values, redefining how a tech company should operate.”

It added, “While we are going to release more exciting features for Premium subscribers, we will keep implementing free features available for everyone, and do it faster than any other massively popular app.”

The firm further explained that, “At the same time, all existing features that users have come to expect and rely on for nearly a decade remain free.

“Moreover, non-premium users will be able to enjoy some of Premium’s benefits: for example, download the extra-large document and view stickers sent by premium users, as well as tap to increase counters on premium reaction that were already added to a message.”