Despite being blocked in Russia, Telegram is the country’s third most popular mobile app for messaging after WhatsApp and Viber.
Its audience quickly expanded a year ago, when a Moscow district court ruled to block the messenger in Russia. Telegram’s audience has also been growing since last September.
Before it was blocked, Telegram was used daily by 2.2 million Russians in big cities aged from 12 to 64. In April 2018, the number of Telegram’s users grew to 3.7 million people.