The Telegram mobile messaging app — launched by Pavel Durov, founder of Russian social network Vkontakte — now has 100 million users, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
The app sees 350,000 new users sign up every day and it delivers 15 billion messages daily, the statement said.
Telegram has shown a 60 percent increase in the number of users in the past nine months. Since May last year, the amount of users grew by 38 million people, the technology news website Venturebeat reported.
Telegram's competitor, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp instant messaging service, recently hit 1 billion monthly active users, according to Venturebeat.
Durov said channels for media and bloggers will be the next step for Telegram, the Vedomosti newspaper reported.
Telegram channels collect a total of 400 million views a day, according to Durov. Earlier this year, Pope Francis launched a channel on Telegram.
In Russia, Telegram is often the subject of official discussion. In November last year, State Duma Deputy Alexander Ageyev proposed that the instant messaging service be blocked as he believes Telegram “is actively used for propaganda purposes by the Islamic State.”
The Islamic State is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
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