Can you invest in Telegram stock? The answer is no. As of right now, they’re a privately owned company. Therefore, you won’t find Telegram stock price anywhere. With Big Tech‘s censorship on display currently, Telegram has seen an uptick in signups. 

What Is Telegram?

• As the demand for online privacy and security continues to mount, people are constantly looking for different services that’ll help keep their information protected and safe. Enter Telegram; a cloud based messaging application that provides secure data encryption and end-to-end encrypted video calling. Security and user protection are the pillars that Telegram is built upon. And the application even offers users the ability to use secret chats. Which are further encrypted with Telegram’s MTProto protocol.

The key to this is that these secret chat messages can only be accessed on the devices that are used between the two parties. We’ll dive into these functions in more detail.

These messages don’t go through the cloud. And are therefore secure from potential hackers. Which would be a boon for Telegram stock price if you could trade it.

The Start

Telegram was launched back in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov. These two brothers were responsible for the creation of the Russian social media platform VK.

They were ousted from their own platform by the Putin government. As a result, the Durov brothers were very interested in creating a platform that would keep their own information secure from outsiders. The app launched in Russia and Germany to start.

However, it quickly spread to access around the world; especially when it was made iOS compatible in August of 2013, and Android in October of 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 Telegram Stock?

Currently, Telegram is a privately owned company and not available for trade on the public stock market. As of now, it doesn’t seem like the Durov brothers are too keen on bringing it public either.

As appropriately, privacy of the company and its users 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, no Telegram stock price for you.

App Monetization 

There’s also the issue of how to properly monetize 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 to have 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 free messaging services that are available. 

The Durov brothers have actually come out and said that profits aren’t and never have been the main goal for Telegram. Although 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 that’s specifically for Telegram so that the platform can maintain its security protocols.

They’ve also floated the idea for paid features but did question how many users would actually use these premium accounts. The brothers even attempted to create their own cryptocurrency called the Telegram Open Network or TON.

But after battling the SEC in the United States over an unregistered digital token offering, Telegram agreed to delist the coin in the end. That could’ve been one say to get a Telegram stock price. 

Is Telegram Owned by Facebook?

• Telegram is not owned by Facebook. Instead, it’s competition for the Facebook owned WhatsApp. One thing that Telegram has a leg up on Facebook is it’s privacy. We’ve seen Facebook, along with Twitter, called into congressional hearings many times 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 it’s ignored by tech companies.

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 the way in which 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 around the world, there’s been an increased demand to use applications that are perceived to be safer to use. 

The main catalyst in recent news was a rumored update to the WhatsApp terms and privacy policy. It would allow Facebook to have access to the data of the messaging platform’s two billion global users.

The news spread like wildfire. It caused many people to feel they need to abandon WhatsApp for fear that their data and information was being used for a nefarious purpose.

Quite ironically, this turned out to be false. Or perhaps, old news is a better way to phrase it. When it comes to WhatsApp vs Telegram stock price, who’d win?

What Is Secret Chat in Telegram?

• The secret chat in Telegram is literally 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. In essence, if it were hacked, our “secret” photos could be posted everywhere.

WhatsApp vs Telegram Stock 

WhatsApp has actually 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 were completely blown out of proportion. 

But many people were concerned that Facebook was reading the messages sent through WhatsApp, and mistook that as the privacy infringement.

The bottom line is Facebook really doesn’t care about the individual or group text messages you send to 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 all of this information anyways. 

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 message and user data is stored across several different data centers around the world.

This method of encryption allows Telegram to ensure that there are added levels of security to prevent hackers or intruders from trying to get 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 before, 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 actually 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 Telegram Is Banned?

• Luckily for many countries, Telegram isn’t banned from use. However, there are some countries, i.e. Iran, who’ve banned the app. Why would this be necessary? Telegram increased in popularity there because of it’s push for privacy. In fact, if you could trade Telegram stock in Iran, it’d probably be volatile. Because this app is the most popular app there. Hence the ban.

Are There Any Other Secure Messaging Platforms?

Yes, in fact 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 is orchestrated by the big tech companies. 

If you don’t want to go with Telegram, at least you have options. Let’s take a look at a few other messaging platforms that preach user security over data sharing. 

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 back in 2014 by a software development group called OWS or Open Whisper Systems; which were determined to create secure methods of online communication.

The actual Signal messenger as we know 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.

It was accelerated by endorsements from Tesla CEO Elon Musk and infamous former NSA worker Edward Snowden. Between January 12th and January 14th, Google Play saw a surge in Signal installations from 10 million to over 50 million. Consequently that led to the Signal servers crashing temporarily. 

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. And still remains Facebook’s largest investment to this day.

Viber

This was released in 2010 by an Israeli company. Then purchased by Japanese conglomerate Rakuten. Viber is perhaps 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, as well as pockets of the Middle East. 

Can Police Track Telegram?

• With privacy the driving force for Telegram, could your information be trackable? As of now, the security so complex that police can’t follow it. Now that’s both a good an bad thing. A double edge sword if you will. It protects good people. But it also protects bad people. That’s the catch 22. 

I Heard These Apps Are Used by Criminals Though, Is That True?

Yes. Just as past encrypted messaging platforms like Blackberry’s BBM and of course 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 Muslim extremist group ISIS. Even though the Daily Mirror labelled 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 the communication tool. As a result, led to some countries ultimately banning the app from use.

These countries include China, Russia, Iran, India, and Indonesia. Although consider the countries banning the app. What’s their take on 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 stymied Telegram’s growth around the world. 

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. 

Conclusion

If you think secure messaging platforms are necessary for now and for the future, Telegram is a great option to try.

Unfortunately, if you’re wanting to invest in the company, it doesn’t look like the Durov brothers are planning on bringing Telegram to the public market anytime soon. 

Nor are they looking to sell Telegram to a larger company. Therefore, no Telegram stock price. If you want to invest in a secure messaging service, Facebook may be your only bet right now.

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 actually does with all user data. 

Telegram has a cool history. And you know in a country like Russia, programmers and developers take their cyber security protocols very seriously.

The Durov brothers have continued to stress the importance of user information and security above all else when it comes to Telegram. So it should come as no surprise that the app has some of the best end to end encryption security in the world.

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 the big tech companies truly view us; as the product and not the customer.

Therefore, we can reasonably expect larger numbers of people to make the switch to platforms such as Telegram. Just to keep the details of their life private and secure.