Telegram's popularity in Russia has doubled since February Th | Telegram Info English

Telegram's popularity in Russia has doubled since February

The number of users who accessed Telegram at least once a day in May has increased to 40 million by June, as Mediascope estimates. Since April, the metric has increased by almost 10 million users.

Social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that were banned in Russia after the beginning of the war continue to lose users. If before the war in Ukraine, the average daily reach for Instagram in Russia was 39 million people, by mid-April it fell to 14.5 million, and by the end of May — to 11.7 million. Facebook's coverage collapsed from 6.7 million users per day first to 2.9 million people, and then to 1.9 million, as Mediascope estimates. The Meta Platforms (Facebook's mother company) was labeled as an extremist organization by the Russian government, thus, most of its services were banned. Despite, that, Russia avoids blocking WhatsApp, seeing its popularity in Russia.

In contrast, Telegram leads at filling the vacant niche. After beginning of the Russia's invasion into Ukraine, people's demand for information from various sides greatly increased. Telegram became the main platform where this information could be promptly obtained.

Graph of the growth of the top 20 Russian Telegram channels over 3 months.

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