WeChat vs. Telegram: Could TON Become the Next Monopolist by Using Blockchain?
WeChat vs. Telegram: Powered by TON, Will Telegram Become an App for Everything in the World?
Today, Telegram and WeChat are popular messengers. Both have a chance of becoming the most popular messenger in the world. Wechat is also used as a payment service, as a social network, and for many other purposes, while Telegram has recently concluded a token pre-sale to launch TON — something more than cryptocurrency or blockchain. According to the project’s white paper, Telegram powered by TON will provide numerous services in addition to messaging, just like WeChat.
In order to assess the chances of each messenger, let’s analyze and compare them.
WeChat vs. Telegram Today
First of all, why are we just comparing Telegram and WeChat? Why not add here Whatsapp, Viber, Facebook, or other messengers? It’s all because of the TON launch (and the fact that it is going to compete in a number of functions and services with Wechat) while there have been no plans announced by Viber or Whatsapp to become anything more than a messenger or calling app.
Features
This comparative table shows the services provided by Wechat and Telegram:

As you can see, the range of services provided by Wechat is much wider than Telegram’s. It should be also mentioned that Wechat (due to the fact that it is a payment service, as well) is used to pay for shopping, taxis, utilities, and many other services. Actually, it has become a good substitute for cash as a monopolist on the Chinese market. For now, WeChat is powered by Chinese UnionPay, and allows prompt p2p payments.
Moreover, WeChat is also testing a city service module. It is going to become an interface for using city services in a fast and convenient way.
WeChat is also used as an ad network in a way totally refused by Telegram. Businesses can promote and offer their services with WeChat.
It should be also mentioned that as a messenger, Telegram provides encrypted texting, which cannot be said about WeChat.
Based upon this table, we can say that today, Telegram functions as a messenger only (with considerably evolving channels, though), while WeChat is an “everything” app in China.
However, it is not enough to compare these apps only according to their features — there are many more informative characteristics.
Audience Contest
Let’s compare two apps according to the most evident metric: audience size. Below, you can see a table showing the audience of WeChat:
It is 1040 million. For sure, WeChat is one of the most popular messengers in the world. And what about Telegram?
Telegram has announced 200 million active users. Not as many, but it should be mentioned that Telegram was founded in 2013, and results at this level after just four years could be called impressive. What about the other messengers?
We can see that WhatsApp and Facebook are leading right now. WeChat is in third place, while Telegram is somewhere at the bottom of the list. Looks like WeChat has an audience that is five times larger, with much more of a chance at winning this race; but the picture changes if we analyze the audience in greater detail.
Analysis of Audience by Geo
Let’s analyze the number of users for each country according to origin country. This is surely China for WeChat, and Russia for Telegram (due to the fact that Pavel Durov came from Russia, and the first users were in Russia, as well).
For WeChat, we can see that only 100 million users live outside of China. More than 900 million users live in China. So WeChat is more of a Chinese app than international.
What about Telegram? There are 15 million users in Russia, and the rest of its 200 million users are located around the world. So this app is more international than the Russian one.
Moreover, in China, there are many people using Telegram due to the fact that China has banned ICOs — so in order to get a channel for communication, Chinese investors use the Telegram app. Why? Well, it is known that in WeChat, there is much talk about censorship and moderation. Let’s get more specific on this topic.
Censorship
There is much censorship taking place in WeChat — messages and posts can be moderated and censored, so it looks like WeChat doesn’t suit people willing to talk about certain subjects.
As for Telegram, there is no censorship at all. Moreover, privacy is protected, as well: user messages cannot be observed by Telegram moderators (nor is there is any such job in Telegram), as those are encrypted.
How Telegram and WeChat Are Growing Differently
Now it’s time to review the ways Telegram and WeChat are growing. With Telegram, it is more about organic growth; since the launch, Telegram hasn’t spent a dollar to promote the app, according to its official statement.
Telegram is still growing daily by 350,000–500,000 users. Peak growth is being achieved by Telegram while other messengers fail or get banned. For example, Telegram brought on 5.4 million new users from Brazil when the government blocked WhatsApp.
When Facebook bought WhatsApp, Telegram got 8 million new users. So it looks like the more mistakes other messengers make, or the more governments block chat services, the greater the chances that Telegram will grow exponentially.
In the meantime, WeChat is powered by one of the largest Chinese holdings: Tencent (capitalization: 400 billion). It grows and evolves using the resources of giant holdings, wastes tons of funds on marketing, and has been increasing its number of services. Moreover, one important factor explains why this messenger has become a monopolist in China, but has not managed to conquer the rest of the world — the Chinese market is closed to foreign services.
Privacy Protection and the Fights Against Governments
Currently, privacy issues with messengers and social networks are actively discussed, especially due to the scandals with Facebook user data leaks. Therefore, those who are concerned about their privacy prefer to choose services that will protect it no matter what. However, many people still do not differentiate between services that provide privacy protection and those that are not really working on it.
When comparing Telegram and WeChat, the differences between them are obvious. For example, Telegram constantly fights against any privacy restrictions. The app was banned in China; however, that is what happens to most non-Chinese services.
It was also banned in Iran, as the app refused to provide user data to the government. Lastly, Telegram was blocked in Russia. It should be mentioned that Telegram has made efforts to provide its users with access to the app, avoiding blocking by using its own proxy and VPN protocols while changing servers and hosting services.
Although the app was blocked in these countries, users there can still use the app. However, downfalls sometimes happen.
In contrast, WeChat collaborates with governments in terms of privacy issues. The story that took place in Russia is a good example. When WeChat first refused to implement the government’s demands and got banned, a few days later, after negotiations and acceptance of demands, it was unblocked.
It can be said that Telegram tends to gain even more popularity and reputation after any government tries to limit privacy and take control over user data and the messages people send each other. Telegram has implemented a wide variety of measures to maintain privacy, and provides additional features like:
- secret chat: provides communication not stored on the Telegram server
- end-to-end encrypted calls and messaging
- deleting messages: you can send a message that will be deleted after it is read
The usability of the app and all of the above-mentioned features are the reasons people who feel vulnerable about privacy issues choose Telegram instead of other messengers. It looks like this is going to become an even more powerful trend in future: with TON, which is going to be launched soon, more and more people will consider Telegram as an attractive alternative.
Involvement with Blockchain
Telegram is fully blockchain-friendly. It is launching TON, which is going to be blockchain-as-a-service, and has also started Gram, an internal Telegram coin. In addition, Pavel Durov actively uses cryptocurrency, and leaves positive comments on blockchain and other related issues.
In the meantime, WeChat has integrated the NEM wallet; however, it censors blockchain-related projects within its mini-program module.
Based upon the above-mentioned data, here is a comparative table illustrating the main differences between WeChat and Telegram.

Telegram vs. WeChat Tomorrow
Speaking of Telegram’s future, it should be mentioned that it is in tight connection with TON, which is going to be launched in the second quarter of 2019. Telegram is rather serious about deadline. Although it was stated that the Telegram team is dealing with some kind of technical difficulties, the company has released a letter for investors stating that if Telegram doesn’t manage to complete TON until October 2019, investors will be offered a refund.
Img ton_roadmap.jpg
Nothing clear can be said about WeChat’s plans for the future; however, it is known that Tencent has announced a partnership with Intel on blockchain research and projects. Additionally, the company has become the biggest backer of the Kik messenger ICO, with a 50-million-dollar investment. We don’t really know whether or not this will affect WeChat.
So now, we’ll talk about TON .
TON Blockchain
Every blockchain adoption starts from its most popular utilization, which is now the Initial Coin Offering. Telegram is not an exceptional case. One more factor for TON and Telegram: this is the first ICO of its size to finish the pre-sale and collect 1.7 billion dollars. During the closed pre-sale, round 1, Telegram collected 850 million dollars from 81 investors, and during the round 2, the company collected another 850 million from 94 investors. This is the reason why the ICO did not go public.
This type of fundraising was chosen because Telegram does not have a monetisation model. As a result, there is a lack of resources for huge R&D development as a payment system on top of blockchain technology. Telegram powered with TON is going to become the first decentralized “everything” app for the whole world, and in the meantime, WeChat will remain as the centralized “everything” app for China only.
TON will provide an architecture that allows the building of billions of blockchains. All of this is done to provide prompt and secure interoperation between blockchains and users. It has been promised that within TON, millions of transactions per second will be possible.
TON Integration in Telegram
Telegram is getting ready to build an ecosystem that will allow easy use of all TON benefits. Recently, one step forward was taken in Telegram with Telegram Passport announced by the company. This KYC tool will be used to avoid authentication in various payment services, as it will be possible to use Telegram Passport as universal identification.
Existing bots can now be customized for business purposes in the future, when the Gram will be used as an internal currency in Telegram. Moreover, businesses will be able to create channels and groups where they can sell goods for Grams.
Telegram vs. WeChat as a Payment System After TON Release
After TON release, Telegram will be able to become an everything app for the whole world. Why? Read further to find out the answer:
- Telegram as a payment system. Users will be able to make payments within Telegram, and the system will process millions of transactions per second — faster than VISA or Mastercard.
- The Gram currency. This viable, scalable cryptocurrency will be recognized all over the world. The only reason cryptocurrencies are not used constantly as a payment tool is scalability issues, which do not allow prompt transactions and high volatility. With Gram, this issue will be solved, as the service has marked the price of Gram (which can be changed in the future). It also promises to solve scalability issues.
- Platform for business. Due to the fact that anyone can create a blockchain, dApp, or smart contract within the TON network, this app will be actively used by businesses to offer their products. This also ensures the value of Gram.
- Any service can be offered. Because of the flexibility of the platform and its wide range of opportunities, any kind of service can be created and offered with Telegram.
Now let’s compare WeChat and Telegram in the future:

In the future, Telegram will be able to provide all the services WeChat provides, allowing others to offer any kind of service on its platform. They will have more options than on WeChat.
Telegram will have its own cryptocurrency, and 200 million users (or more, by the time Gram is released) will have instant access to Gram. There is no other cryptocurrency that could be presented in such a form to its target audience.
Telegram will be fully decentralized and private, which is a huge competitive advantage now. The value of this feature will only grow in the future, especially if governments don’t manage to provide adequate regulation.
Telegram Blockchain? Let’s Dive Deep Into the Details!
Few details are open to the community at this time. Telegram is really concerned about security issues. It’s not only about “top” features; it also concerns encryption, speed, and simplicity. As Telegram states in its white paper, top blockchain projects still do not offer the best services to their users:
These drawbacks represent key reasons for Telegram to start working on its own solution by taking the best from the market. Nowadays, there are a few possible ways how to build one’s own platform:
- use existing solutions, like building a platform on public blockchains using dApps (Ethereum, Nem, Neo, EOS, etc.)
- build one’s own platform, such as a fork from open-source blockchains (Stellar, Graphene, Ethereum, Num, Bitcoin, etc.)
- build a brand-new solution.
It’s not surprising: Telegram is taking the third way. They are creating a blockchain that combines Ethereum’s sharding with proof-of-stake consensus, which is putting Buterin’s innovation at risk.
The scalability of Telegram’s system is still unclear, as Byzantine Fault Tolerant protocol states that it requires at least 2/3 of all nodes to agree on the transaction. That is why the most important point is developing the right approach to sharding and its use of computations in order to keep it fast and scalable.
Another unclear concept is the Gas (fees) system (similar to the Gas used in Ethereum). Gas is just one feature that could save you from self-DDoS inside a smart contract. In the Ethereum system, you should have some Ethers in your wallet to pay fees for transaction execution, which will be used as a reward to miners for obtaining transactions. Telegram will use its own nodes. Does this mean that developing Gas in Telegram is a new monetisation model? Interesting question, isn’t it?
As part of the Telegram platform, the core development team is offering these killer features (according to the TechCrunch):
- distributed file storage akin to services like Dropcoin and the ICO company Filecoin
- a proxy service for creating decentralized VPN services and TOR-like secure browsing environments based on the blockchain
- services for decentralized apps, smart contracts, and decentralized web-browsing experiences
- micropayments and peer-to-peer transactions
More will be coming soon, and the crypto community, along with Telegram’s investors, are waiting for TON’s release.
How Can Telegram Be Used After TON Release?
With the features provided by Telegram, regular users will now be able to use all of the services without border or currency limitations. For example, users will be able to get an Uber and pay with Gram, or offer their services within TON for Grams, then get paid and exchange Grams for any fiat currency in their country.
Businesses will be able to establish contracts all over the world, and make prompt payments for services with Gram. This will take less time due to the ability to implement smart contracts.
What’s more, this all is going to be secure due to the fact that TON will be decentralized, and all user data will be encrypted.
Conclusion
To summarize, Telegram powered with TON has every chance of becoming a monopolist, as it is more than just a messenger. TON backed by Telegram is likely to succeed as a blockchain-as-a-service, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and development platform. The most reputable crypto enthusiasts say crypto adoption is possible after the creation of a popular blockchain by the biggest user platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram.
The Telegram team will rely on its decade of experience in building user-friendly interfaces for tens of millions users to create light wallets, exchanges, and identification services that will allow users to get on board with cryptocurrencies in an intuitive way. Integrated into Telegram applications, the TON wallet will become the world’s most adopted cryptocurrency wallet, and crypto will be the next real mainstream.

