What is Telegram’s stock price, and are they publicly traded? Unfortunately, investors cannot purchase Telegram shares because they’re private. However, Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) is a social media company that traders can invest in.
As the demand for online privacy and security continues to mount, people are constantly looking for different services that will help keep their information protected and safe. Enter Telegram is a cloud-based messaging application providing secure data encryption and end-to-end encrypted video calling.
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Telegram Introduction (No Stock Symbol)
Security and user protection are the pillars upon which Telegram is built. The application even allows users to use secret chats, further encrypted with Telegram’s MTProto protocol.
The key is that these secret chat messages can only be accessed on the devices used between the two parties. We’ll dive into these functions in more detail. These messages don’t go through the cloud. They are, therefore, secure from potential hackers, which would be a boon for Telegram stock price if you could trade it.
Telegram Stock History
Telegram was launched back in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov. These two brothers were responsible for creating the Russian social media platform VK.
They were ousted from their platform by the Putin government. As a result, the Durov brothers were very interested in creating a platform that would keep their information secure from outsiders. The app launched in Russia and Germany to start.
However, it quickly spread to access worldwide, especially when it was made iOS compatible in August 2013 and Android in October 2013.
As of January 2021, it was the eighth most downloaded app in 2020. It has well over 500 million monthly active users on its platform.
Can I Invest in Telegram Stock?
Telegram is a privately owned company and is not available for trade on the public stock market. It seems like the Durov brothers are still deciding whether to bring it public.
As appropriate, the company’s and its users’ privacy are their main focus. For a company that doesn’t always maintain the same country for its headquarters, Telegram would be hard-pressed to want to provide internal information to shareholders or analysts.
So don’t expect Telegram to appear on the stock market anytime soon. In other words, there is no Telegram stock price for you.
App Monetization
There’s also the issue of properly monetizing a pure chat service unless you add a premium membership or subscription charge. With Telegram focusing on user privacy, it’s a good guess that advertisers won’t be allowed access.
Which is one of the main ways apps can monetize themselves. The 500 million user base is a strong figure. However, one would have to wonder how many would leave for one of the many other available free messaging services.
The Durov brothers have come out and said that profits aren’t and never have been the main goal for Telegram. However, it doesn’t operate as a non-profit organization. The Durov brothers have spoken recently about adding advertising to the Telegram application to pay for some of the rising costs. Instead of going the traditional advertising route, Durov is building an Ad Platform. One specifically for Telegram so that the platform can maintain its security protocols.
They’ve also floated the idea of paid features but questioned how many users would use these premium accounts. The brothers even attempted to create their cryptocurrency called the Telegram Open Network or TON. But after battling the SEC in the United States over an unregistered digital token offering, Telegram ultimately agreed to delist the coin. That could’ve been one way to get a Telegram stock price.
META Platforms ($META) TipRanks Stock Forecast Report 3/24
Is Telegram Owned by Facebook?
Facebook (META) does not own Telegram. Instead, it’s competition for the Facebook-owned WhatsApp. One thing that Telegram has a leg up on Facebook is privacy. Facebook and Twitter have often called into congressional hearings for privacy breaches. Therefore, you can choose how private you want your messages to be. Although there’s no Telegram stock price, privacy is great in a world where tech companies ignore it.
Why the Push for User Privacy?
Recently, much has been made about the privacy of our online information.
Big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have been under fire for the way they handle our online activities.
Earlier this year, a documentary titled “The Social Dilemma” was released on Netflix. It went viral as it uncovered how these big tech and social media companies use our information and personal data against us.
Since then, as well as numerous antitrust allegations from governments worldwide, there’s been an increased demand to use applications that are perceived to be safer.
The main catalyst in recent news was a rumored update to the WhatsApp terms and privacy policy. It would allow Facebook to access the data of the messaging platform’s two billion global users.
The news spread like wildfire. It caused many people to feel they needed to abandon WhatsApp, fearing that their data and information were being used for a nefarious purpose.
Quite ironically, this turned out to be false. Or old news is a better way to phrase it. When it comes to WhatsApp vs Telegram stock price, who’d win?
Telegram Secret Chat
The secret chat in Telegram is that—a secret. The end to end encryption is the best in the world. Therefore, you can send messages, pictures, and videos without anyone finding them. Great for Telegram stock price, right? We like to keep certain things a secret, right? Think of Snapchat, for example. You send a picture that “disappears” in 24 hours. We can’t see it again. But it’s downloaded to a Snapchat server somewhere. If it were hacked, our “secret” photos could be posted everywhere.
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What Sets Telegram Apart?
Telegram openly focuses on the security and privacy of its users and utilizes cloud technology to do so. One of the most important parts of Telegram’s security network is that messages and user data are stored across several different data centers worldwide.
This encryption method allows Telegram to ensure added levels of security to prevent hackers or intruders from getting into Telegram’s system.
Secret chats are becoming more popular in messaging services. Even Facebook’s Messenger program has implemented a secret chat function.
As mentioned, the secret chats don’t even go through Telegram’s cloud servers. Instead, they remain encrypted on only the two devices involved in the conversation.
But that’s not all; Telegram’s secret chats have to be accepted and activated upon an invitation from one party to the other, which triggers the encryption keys for that particular chat session.
eTelegram sustains that their chats have supported the perfect forward secrecy protocols since 2014.
Why Is Telegram Banned?
Luckily for many countries, Telegram isn’t banned from use. However, there are some countries, i.e., Iran, that’ve banned the app. Why would this be necessary? Telegram increased in popularity there because it pushed for privacy. If you could trade Telegram stock in Iran, it’d probably be volatile because this app is the most popular there. Hence the ban.
Telegram Stock Competitors
Yes, quite a few. There exists a small portion of the internet that very much values their privacy and information. So they refuse to use anything that the big tech companies orchestrate.
You have options if you want to go with something other than Telegram. Let’s look at a few other messaging platforms that preach user security over data sharing.
1. Signal Messenger
Signal is one of the more popular platforms that saw a migration of users from WhatsApp after the recent privacy update.
It was launched in 2014 by a software development group called OWS or Open Whisper Systems, which was determined to create secure online communication methods.
The actual Signal messenger, as we know it today, was co-founded by the founder of OWS, Moxie Marlinspike, and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.
So you can see the brain power behind Signal. While usage has been consistent throughout the years, sign-up rates grew exponentially in the weeks following the WhatsApp update.
Endorsements from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and infamous former NSA worker Edward Snowden accelerated it. Between January 12th and January 14th, Google Play saw a surge in signal installations from 10 million to over 50 million, leading to temporarily crashing signal servers.
2. WhatsApp Messenger
Like it or not, it’s still the king of messaging apps, with nearly a quarter of the world’s population using the app in one way or another. The service was acquired by social media giant Facebook in 2014 for $19.3 billion.
In fact, at the time, it was the largest acquisition by a venture-backed company in history. It remains Facebook’s largest investment to this day.
3. Viber
This was released in 2010 by an Israeli company and then purchased by Japanese conglomerate Rakuten. Viber is the most popular messaging service you’ve never heard of.
Globally, it has over a billion users. That’s a huge number! Europe is where the app has become very popular. Viber enjoys particularly high use in Ukraine, Russia, and pockets of the Middle East.
Stock Signals & Alerts
WhatsApp vs Telegram Stock
WhatsApp has been sharing this data with Facebook since 2016. The notification that appeared to WhatsApp users was referring to something else entirely.
WhatsApp is still secure, and the end-to-end encryption that made it so attractive in the first place is still fully intact.
No matter how you feel about Facebook and how it uses people’s data, the recent scare about WhatsApp’s privacy policies was completely blown out of proportion.
However, many people were concerned that Facebook was reading the messages sent through WhatsApp and mistook that as privacy infringement.
The bottom line is that Facebook doesn’t care about the individual or group text messages you send your friends. What information does Facebook and other tech giants want? Things like your browser activity, what time zone you are in, your phone habits, and even your IP address, which acts as a geographical location tracker.
Sure, that may seem a little unsettling, but unfortunately, computers and mobile phones make it easy to access this information anyway.
Can Police Track Telegram?
With privacy the driving force for Telegram, could your information be trackable? Currently, the security is so complex that police can’t follow it. Now, that’s both a good and bad thing. It’s a double-edged edge sword, if you will. It protects good people. But it also protects bad people. That’s the catch-22.
Apps Used by Criminals
Yes. Like past encrypted messaging platforms like Blackberry’s BBM and WhatsApp, Telegram has been a popular app used by terrorists and other forms of organized crime.
In 2015, Telegram became a popular communications and recruiting tool for the Muslim extremist group ISIS. Even though the Daily Mirror labeled Telegram as a ‘jihadi messaging app,’ Durov reiterated that Telegram’s message of privacy is more important than the fear of terrorist activities.
Several other terrorist acts and events were carried out using Telegram as a communication tool and, as a result, led to some countries ultimately banning the app from use.
These countries include China, Russia, Iran, India, and Indonesia. However, consider the countries banning the app. What’s their take on the privacy of their citizens?
It’s never promising when some of the largest population groups in the world are willing to ban the use of your app in their country; as a result, that has hampered Telegram’s growth worldwide.
Similarly, Telegram has also become a breeding ground for the far-right and white supremacist movement in the United States. Such groups as the Proud Boys and other neo-Nazi organizations have posted messages and videos inciting violence against other races.
It took until January of this year for Telegram to close the accounts of many white supremacist and neo-Nazi channels. Many of these groups chose Telegram as they were banned from traditional social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
While Telegram has taken steps to try and eliminate terrorist and hate groups from its platform, the fact is criminal organizations will always find ways to utilize these hyper-secure applications to shield their communication from authorities.
Final Thoughts: Telegram Stock
If secure messaging platforms are necessary now and in the future, Telegram is a great option.
Unfortunately, if you want to invest in the company, it doesn’t look like the Durov brothers are planning to bring Telegram to the public market anytime soon.
Nor are they looking to sell Telegram to a larger company. Therefore, there is no Telegram stock price. If you want to invest in a secure messaging service, Facebook may be your only bet.
While the WhatsApp privacy update was ultimately untrue, or at least new information, it did reopen the conversation about its parent company, Facebook, and what it does with all user data.
Telegram has a cool history. And you know, programmers and developers take their cyber security protocols very seriously in a country like Russia.
The Durov brothers have continued to stress the importance of user information and security above all else regarding Telegram. So, it should be no surprise that the app has some of the world’s best end-to-end encryption security.
Is that enough for people to make the move from WhatsApp to Telegram? It’s hard to say. We continue to learn more about how big tech companies view us as the product, not the customer.
Therefore, we can reasonably expect more people to switch to platforms such as Telegram. To keep the details of their life private and secure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Telegram does not have a public stock price because they are a privately held company.
Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov are the two brothers who own Telegram. They founded the company in 2013 while in Russia.
Russia does not own Telegram. It was founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov.
