In Korea, Telegram is still seen as "just a messenger." KakaoTalk's dominance and past negative associations have kept it there. Globally, the picture looks nothing like that. In Web3, crypto, ecommerce, and B2B SaaS, Telegram has already passed Discord as the primary community channel — and the past year has widened that gap.
The numbers
Telegram crossed 1 billion monthly active users (MAU) in March 2025, and now sits at around 500 million daily active users (DAU) (demandsage 2026). About 2.5 million new users sign up every day, and total MAU has grown 137.5% over the last five years. It's the seventh platform to clear 1 billion MAU after Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and WeChat.
Paid subscriptions tell the same story. Telegram Premium grew from 2 million subscribers in July 2023 to 15 million in May 2025 — a 7.5× increase in under two years (aitechtonic 2026). Few messengers in history have converted that many people to a paid tier.
Why it became a marketing channel
The Mini App ecosystem is the lever. Blockchain adoption among Mini Apps grew 3,100% in the past year, and Mini App MAUs have stabilised at 150–190 million (Coinbound 2026).
The number that matters most is click-through rate. Ads placed inside Mini Apps see CTR of 20–40%. Mobile ad averages sit around 0.5–1%, putting Mini App placements roughly 20 to 80 times above the baseline. The driver is context — users are already inside a community focused on the same topic when the ad appears.
Payments have hardened fast. Telegram Stars, launched in June 2024, is both an in-app virtual currency and a withdrawal route into the TON blockchain. By user count, it now ranks as one of the largest fiat-to-crypto onramps in the world (DEXTools 2026). In May 2026, Pavel Durov announced Telegram itself will run TON as the largest validator, with TON Pay 2.0 (Q2 2026) targeting sub-$0.0005 per transaction.
Regional strength — the B2B angle
Telegram's deepest penetration sits in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. In Iran, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan it's the everyday messenger. In Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines it has strong reach among digitally engaged segments (Hashmeta 2026). SEA's user base is projected to reach 120–140 million by 2026–27.
For B2B, the more important fact: decision-makers (CEOs, CTOs, procurement leads) across these regions accept the first business contact through Telegram. The pattern we've seen repeatedly running overseas partnerships — a lead that goes silent on email for a month replies within 24 hours over Telegram.
What we recommend for Korean companies
For teams preparing to go global, three operating choices.
First, run Channel + Group as a pair. A Channel (one-way broadcasts) paired with a Group (member conversation) keeps announcements out of chat noise while letting discussion stay alive. Every overseas project we've run started this way; the cases that tried a single Group died within six months.
Second, automate the first funnel with a bot. A bot that handles /start → welcome → FAQ buttons → interest selection → email capture gets 3–5× the conversion of a typical web form. A bot we built for an overseas crypto project pulled 12,000 signups in the first two weeks.
Third, design impersonation defense from day one. Telegram's openness cuts both ways. Official channels should pin the @handle, sign admin messages, and watermark bot outputs — multiple layers, redundant on purpose. One of our clients lost roughly 2% of revenue to an impersonator account they didn't catch early.
Closing
Telegram is a community asset, not an ad channel. Treat it as a one-off campaign and it burns out fast. Build it correctly once and it becomes a more active asset than an email list — with shorter response cycles. If your roadmap touches global B2B, Web3, or ecommerce, the simplest first move is adding a Telegram handle next to your email on the contact page. That one line changes next quarter's reply rate.