Pavel Durov

🐱 Despite the fact that I am clearly a dog person, Telegram hosts the largest cat-lover community in the world — Catizen 😼

🐱 Catizen is a mini game on Telegram with over 26 million players. The game has already earned $16 million (!) from in-app purchases and donated 1% of it to rescue stray cats 😱

😄 Catizen introduced millions of people to blockchain, because it uses TON-based smart contracts for its in-game rewards. Their team also built tools for other developers to easily launch their games on Telegram and TON 🤑

👏 Well done, Catizen team — now I’m waiting for you to develop a “Dogizen”! 🐶

👑9️⃣5️⃣0️⃣👑 Telegram reached 950 million monthly active users — up from 900 million in the spring. On track for ONE BILLION! 🎆

⚡️ 2024 will go down in history as the year when hundreds of millions of people became familiar with blockchain. We’re proud that Telegram is at the epicenter of this societal transformation 🤵

🔥To keep the fire going, this month, we will introduce a mini app store and an in-app browser with support for Web3-pages 😮

❗️ We will also step up our efforts to fight the scammers seeking to defraud new entrants into the crypto realm. Soon, Telegram will begin displaying the month of registration and principal country for public accounts (similar to Instagram). We will also allow organizations to use their mini apps to issue labels for channels, creating a decentralized marketplace for third-party verification ✔️

😏 Thanks to more transparency and decentralization, Telegram users will know more about the opportunities and the dangers of this new world 💪

🇰🇿 I recently returned from Kazakhstan — the economic powerhouse of Central Asia. I visited majestic Astana, vibrant Almaty, picturesque Burabay, and the scenic Charyn Canyon 🥺

⬆️ The beauty of Kazakhstan can only be rivaled by its ambitions. The country attracts international companies and tech startups with business-friendly policies and favorable taxes. It also improves its edge in education and science by supporting innovative schools and universities 📘

📞 12.5 million of 20 million Kazakhs use Telegram monthly, a 25% increase from last year. We are proud to serve as the main communication platform for the Kazakh people and hope to continue to be a tool that accelerates its rapid economic and digital transformation🫡

🐹 Hamster Kombat has become the latest Internet phenomenon everyone's talking about. 239 million people have signed up for this Telegram mini app in just 3 months 🔥

📈 It took Hamster only 73 days to reach 100 million monthly users. Each day, 4-5 million new users join Hamster Kombat, making it the fastest-growing digital service in the world 🔝

🍆 As I said a few months back, a new wave of mini apps on Telegram is coming, and Hamster Kombat is now leading the pack. Its amazing growth shows the viral potential of the Telegram mini app platform 🦠

🍸 Soon, Hamster’s team will mint its token on TON, introducing the benefits of blockchain to hundreds of millions of people. A new era is coming, and we are witnessing its arrival in real time 🖼

🤑 The duck picture for the latest Telegram update is so good I printed out its full version to hang in my office 🍀

🍷 The recent Telegram update revolutionizes how people interact with mini apps. Now people can collapse apps and switch between them. In the future, this new bottom bar will also store web pages and other content for later reading.

💫 This update also introduces the ability for channel owners to publish paid photos and videos, which users can buy with Stars. Like mini app developers, channel owners can convert the Stars they collect into Toncoin, with virtually no commission from Telegram.

#️⃣ The newest version of Telegram also includes other features like hashtag and location search for public Stories. Check out the full announcement for more details!

🇺🇿 This week I visited Uzbekistan – and thoroughly enjoyed it 👍

❤️ Uzbekistan loves Telegram: over 70% of the country’s 37 million people is on Telegram and their entire economy is run on our platform (every business in the country has a Telegram bot or channel). We are proud of this popularity and we love Uzbekistan back ❤️

✨During my trip to Uzbekistan I was amazed by the modern infrastructure of quickly developing Tashkent, the mountainous landscapes of Eastern Uzbekistan, and the rich history of Buhara and Samarkand 💖

🏄‍♂️ I’ve met lots of young and talented people with good hearts. I am grateful for the warm welcome and hope to stay more in the sunny Tashkent later this year 😎