At the end of 2022, Telegram for the first time overtook WhatsApp (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) in terms of user traffic, the Big Four operators calculated: by the beginning of 2023, its share exceeded 60-80% of the total volume.
The traffic volume of the WhatsApp messenger is stable, “there is neither growth nor decline,” says a representative of VimpelCom (works under the Beeline brand). At the same time, the volume of Telegram traffic in 2022 exceeded WhatsApp and continues to grow, he noted: “In the first two weeks of January [2023 г.] growth was 68% year-on-year. It is worth noting that the volume of traffic reflects not only the popularity of the service, but also how much heavy content is transmitted through it – primarily video.