Pavel Durov, who used to call WhatsApp «a miserable copy» Telegram, published infographics allegedly proving that Meta messenger copied «more than 80% of their functions.
The infographic mentions, among other things, options such as channels, message editing, link previews, polls, reactions to messages, and the like — with a launch time that demonstrates that Telegram received them «years» before WhatsApp.
«Few WhatsApp users realize that they are using a copy. More than 80% of its features were copied from Telegram — years later», — Durov wrote in the post.
In parallel, Durov launched a contest where he offered a $50,000 reward for the person who creates the best viral video about how Telegram «was always years ahead of its cheap copy — WhatsApp». In the end, he clarified that all these measures were introduced because WhatsApp was caught on the «black PR campaign with slander against Telegram».
It is worth noting that the company that created WhatsApp was originally founded by a programmer of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, Jan Koum, and an American, Brian Acton, while in 2014 it was acquired by the then Facebook (now Meta). The deal was valued at a whopping $19 billion — Instagram, for comparison, cost the company $1 billion.
Telegram was founded in 2013 and has been gaining popularity in recent years (in March, Durov reported about 1 billion users) — along with claims of cooperation with Russian special services and refusal to cooperate with law enforcement agencies of other countries. In August 2024, Pavel Durov detained in Francewhere he stayed for about six months, facing 12 chargesrelated to the work of the messenger (distribution of materials of sexual abuse of children and promotion of terrorism, among other things).
It should be noted that Telegram is currently the main network through which Ukrainians watch news — about 73% of themalthough its share grew by only 1% over the year.
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