Telegram founder Pavel Durov Steve Jennings / Getty Images

WIRED talks to Pavel Durov, the enigmatic founder of messaging app Telegram. Launched in 2013, the service recently passed 100 million monthly active users. But it isn't without its controversies.

Free encrypted messaging app Telegram has more than 100 million global monthly users, founder Pavel Durov has said.


Speaking on The WIRED.co.uk Podcast with WIRED editor David Rowan, before the announcement at Mobile World Congress, Durov said the messaging service had doubled in size in 12 months. "We've just announced that we've reached 100 million active users. They're spread across the globe," he said. "You can't name one specific market that would account for 25 or 30 percent. We're growing on every continent."

In the full one hour podcast, Durov explains how the company has established itself as a competitor in the heavily crowded messaging scene, how he offered Edward Snowden a job, and how the app is exploring ways to stop terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State from using its channel.

Read next Have we found evidence of alien life? Podcast Have we found evidence of alien life?

Telegram, founded in 2013, uses a secure end-to-end encryption method that makes messages virtually impossible to decode. That core concept, combined with an ad-free business model, has allowed it to take a significant share of the market away from Facebook and other messaging rivals.

Wired


Telegram still lags in raw numbers behind WhatsApp's billion monthly active users and Facebook Messenger's 800 million monthly active users. But Durov says its growth is rapid, with the majority of new users arriving through pure word-of-mouth: "Our growth relies solely on our users suggesting to their friends to download and use Telegram. Every day 350,000 users sign-up for Telegram, without any effort on our part".

Simplicity is key, he says. "We deliver 15 billion messages per day. The core engineering team is 15 people and we have obviously had to automate a lot of things and rely on scripts and artificial intelligence rather than human labour to keep everything up and running."

The company doesn't make any money, has a tiny number of staff and has no permanent base. The company, and its main team, relocate in Europe every "two to fourth months" Durov says in the podcast.

Read next This week on The WIRED Podcast This week on The WIRED Podcast

Telegram has has come under fire for creating a space where extremists could evade surveillance, and in November Telegram staff removed 78 publicly accessible channels, which were sharing Islamic State propaganda. Durov says there is more the company can do; the company is blocking "a few" public Islamic State channels that are being used for propaganda, for instance. "We're trying to build tools that would enable us to do it in a more efficient way," he says. This includes an "automated" tool to help the staff identify the content. "Are we doing enough? Probably not because we're a small team and we are trying to scale. We hire more and more people processing these reports and requests. We're gradually building tools to automate this process -- but it all takes time, obviously. We try to make it one of our priorities."

To listen on any device, either hit the play button above, or download using the link under Subscribe & Play.

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE | SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE

In iTunes for your computer, iPhone, iPod and iPad

RSS feed for other podcast catchers


Music by: Filip Hnizdo

Show produced and edited by: James Temperton

Report written by: Matt Burgess