Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov has revealed the reason why there is a leak of WhatsApp users to his instant messaging application, according to a statement published on Friday on its official Telegram channel, highlights RT.
“I hear that Facebook has a whole department dedicated to finding out why Telegram is so popular. Imagine dozens of employees working on it full time, ”says the text. “I’m happy to save tens of millions of dollars on Facebook and give away our secret for free: to respect its users,” he adds.
In this regard, the Russian entrepreneur notes that millions of people are outraged after the announcement of WhatsApp, which reported that from February 8 will share data with Facebook, a platform to which it belongs since 2014.
WhatsApp’s new usage policies have sparked controversy and concern for privacy because the tech giant will have access to contacts, mobile device information and user location, among other data.
Durov says that “it is not surprising that the flight of WhatsApp users to Telegram has accelerated,” arguing that this situation has been happening for years. “Telegram has become a major issue for the Facebook corporation,” he notes.
The co-founder of Telegram argues that in the face of this inability to compete with its application in terms of quality and privacy, these companies appear to have opted for “covert marketing,” citing as an example that recently several paid junk added biased information in the Wikipedia article on WhatsApp.
He also points out that they have detected bots that spread inaccurate information about its application on social networks, such as claiming that Telegram is a Russian company, which does not use open source or is not encrypted.
Unlike Facebook, Telegram does not spend money, let alone billions of dollars, on “marketing,” Durov points out. We believe that people are smart enough to choose what is best for them and, judging by the 500 million people who use Telegram, this belief is justified, ”he concludes.