Telegram reaches over 500 million users

Message application Telegram has reached more than 500 million active users, recording 25 million new ones in the past 72 hours, according to founder Pavel Durov.

The number of users exceeded 500 million during the first week of the new year, according to Durov.

"Twenty-five million users have joined Telegram in the last 72 hours. 38% of them are from Asia, 27% from Europe, and 21% from Latin America," he said, indicating the number of users continues to increase.

The WhatsApp messaging service forced many users last week to agree to new privacy rules for sharing personal data with Facebook companies.

Users will not be able to use the application service unless they accept the terms.