Telegram App Isn't Indian - Know Before You Quit WhatsApp

@thebigk • Oct 24, 2024

Oct 24, 2024

3.7K

A nasty campaign has been circulating on WhatsApp. It says that since 'Whatsapp' is not 'Indian', people should abandon it and use 'Telegram' which is 'Indian'. I ignored the message at first but my father got the same message on his phone and now NextBigWhat has published a post about it! The campaign is massive and as a result - Telegram is gaining lot of popularity in India.

But let's do a fact check - Is Telegram App 'Indian'?

It's not! It's made by two Russian brothers who incorporated their nonproft company in Germany. So Telegram, officially, is 'German'!

It's totally your choice what messenger you wish to use; but be informed 😀

PS: Android ain't Indian either 😛

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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Nov 9, 2014

Yeah. I was quite surprised when Telegram app appeared in top 10 most popular free apps list on the Google Play Store India because nobody I know uses it.

PS: Another message being circulated is about forwarding a certain text message to all contacts in your WhatsApp list so as to make Whatsapp free forever. 😕😨
Why are people forwarding such messages? This stupidity has to stop.
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Dhananjay Harkare

@dhananjay-0OEUGZ • Nov 9, 2014

Yeah, true that.
Along with Telegram, apps like Line, Wechat, Kik etc too aren't Indian. However Hike is. And it's quite good. So if anyone is planning to migrate from WhatsApp, Hike may be the best choice in this case.
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Anoop Kumar

@anoop-kumar-GDGRCn • Nov 9, 2014

This what happen when people know only two things on internet Facebook and whatsapp.😡
But yes, feature wise Telegram is better. I don't know how fast it is.
I don't use much but, Whatsapp is really fast like hell👍
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Gollapinni Karthik Sharma

@gollapinni-karthik-sharma-EgBEXm • Nov 10, 2014

#-Link-Snipped-#

ROFL how can people be so dumb to believe it just a fractions of a message!

<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/25/5445864/telegram-messenger-hottest-app-in-the-world" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Why Telegram has become the hottest messaging app in the world - The Verge</a>
Reasons why telegram was is in top raising category No.1.
I guess all get attracted to see what new features are in a new app when it comes out, so when whats app when down they downloaded it and started using to explore it.

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Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

@sarathkumar-FEGRPw • Nov 10, 2014

May be its a business tactics to increase usage of Whats app ( I am talking about free whatsapp forward message)
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Nov 10, 2014

One thing is for sure. The trick worked. The topic was trending on social media for the last 2 days. For the first time, people started googling telegram app, if it's Indian or not and landed up on trivial details about the app, its features, its founders and what not on Wikipedia.
At least more than half the crowd now knows there's a competitor app trying to build its base in India.

Well played.
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Vikram S Bargah

@vikram-s-EgXevn • Nov 10, 2014

Got this message about the apps originating from respective countries , though haven't googled for its authenticity.

HIKE: India
Watsapp: America
LINE : Japan
WECHAT : China
TELEGRAM : Germany
VIBER : Israel
SKYPE : America
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Nov 10, 2014

Hike isn't Indian either. They're funded by Bharti Softbank; Softbank is a Japanese Firm 😀

I think nothing on the Internet can be attributed to any specific country.
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Jan 26, 2015

So basically, there's no GOOD (substantially better) instant messaging app coming from India. Why is that?! There's so many people here who are great at developing Android and iOS apps and are forever looking for new app ideas. I think it wouldn't hurt to have a decent messaging platform made by Indian developers.

The 'Make in India' effect isn't catching up in this space. Sad to see that.
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Divyaprakash KC

@divyaprakash-UywozO • Jan 27, 2015

Ankita Katdare
So basically, there's no GOOD (substantially better) instant messaging app coming from India. Why is that?! ...
I guess maintaining the infrastructure is the issue.

Off topic : Can we have a crazyengineers app ?
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Jan 27, 2015

Divyaprakash
Off topic : Can we have a crazyengineers app ?
Currently it serves no purpose other than getting push notifications on either Android or iOS. Thankfully CE Mobile site works really fine.
We could launch a demo version for a month or so anyway. But an app would be really useful when there's need of more *activity* from the end-user.
That's just what I feel. Let's see. 😀
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • Jan 28, 2015

Divyaprakash
Off topic : Can we have a crazyengineers app ?
We always would like to have a CE app for anything. Just need the right guys to lead and run the project.. and keep it running 😉

Back to topic.

I'm ok with paying a small amount for whatsapp as long as its fast & stable. Though it wouldn't hurt to have Telegram to be a good competitor. Competition is good for us customers.
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Kunal Diwate

@kunal-diwate-fhDr0n • Apr 2, 2015

Vikram S Bargah
Got this message about the apps originating from respective countries , though haven't googled for its authenticity.

HIKE: India
Watsapp: America
LINE : Japan
WECHAT : China
TELEGRAM : Germany
VIBER : Israel
SKYPE : America
Line and kakoo is from korea
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Apr 2, 2015

Kunal Diwate
Line and kakoo is from korea
Though the parent company is Korean, the LINE messenger was entirely developed in Japan.
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Sep 6, 2015

I thought I'd just extend this discussion by putting forward a thought: In the current scheme of things; it's not really possible to call any company 'Indian' or 'American'. Yeah, you can always track who the major shareholders are and then decide the nationality of the company. Take Flipkart for example; the company was founded by Indian founders, but all the majority stakeholders in the company are all foreign firms. Would you still call Flipkart an Indian company?

On the similar lines, those who think that they should switch to Telegram because they think its an 'Indian Company', remember that you should also quit using Facebook - because Facebook is for sure NOT an Indian company.

The companies might have headquarters in any country but the owners might be from different geographies. 😀
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Dec 13, 2015
A few friends were discussing about this the other day and I was surprised to find out that people still think that Telegram app is Indian.

Here are some answers to the Frequently Asked Questions about Telegram app:
1. Telegram was launched in 2013.
2. The duo Nikolai Durov and Pavel Durov are its creators.
3. The two brothers are also famous for founding 'VK' - the Russian social network.
4. They had to leave the company VK as it was taken over by the Russian Government
5. The company that runs the Telegram app is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
6. The app's client-side code is open-source software
7. The app's server-side code is closed-sourced and proprietary.
8. In October 2013, Telegram had 100,000 daily active users.
9. In September 2015, the app had 60 million active users.
10. The app is available on: mobile systems - Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Ubuntu Touch and desktop systems - Windows, OS X and Linux.
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Dec 13, 2015

An interesting update:

A few days back, the news went viral that - WhatsApp has began blocking links to rival app Telegram on its Android platform variant. The internet went crazy about how they thought is wasn't okay form companies to control (or alter) the personal data we share.

When it comes to dominant commercial platforms, the features we use are all at whim of the platform owner and their commercial interests.

Do you think it's cool? Looking forward to what CEans have to say.
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D.Sureshkumar

@dsureshkumar-XbEyRG • Nov 15, 2016

Kaustubh Katdare
Hike isn't Indian either. They're funded by Bharti Softbank; Softbank is a Japanese Firm 😀

I think nothing on the Internet can be attributed to any specific country.
But Bharti is an Indian entreprise with maximum Share holding
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Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Sep 8, 2018

It's true @D.sureshkumar They say Hike app has been built in India and the company also hires engineers in Delhi and Bangalore to work on the app. But I think with Whatsapp's dominance the Hike app has been left behind in India.
Does anyone actively uses Hike app here?

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