By Choi Sung-jin
Since the anti-terrorism bill passed the National Assembly recently, domestic users of messenger app services have noticeably moved to foreign apps, relatively free from officials’ surveillance, industry watchers say.
App Annie, an app-analyzing company, said Tuesday that in the ranking of mobile downloads, “Telegram,” whose server is in Germany, has sharply risen in recent days. As recently as Feb. 7, Telegram was 51st in Apple App Store’s download ranking, but has drastically risen to take top place on March 2, when the law passed the parliament.
The mobile messenger, made by a Russian programmer, is relatively less exposed to the risk of domestic spying, the experts said.
A similar trend is seen in Google API, too, used by the largest number of Koreans, including those who have Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy phones. Telegram’s ranking in the communication app area has rocketed from 30th to second place in just a month.
But the once-perennial top ranker, Kakao Talk, has fallen to second place in the Apple App Store, and to third to fourth place in Google API.
This is not the first time the Korean mobile messenger has suffered falls in ranking. In October 2014, when public prosecutors looked into Kakao Talk, many users also shifted to Telegram.
There have been more instances of governments hindering economic activity and innovation under the pretext of national security since the terrorists’ attacks in Paris last November, the experts said. Apple, for instance, is resisting the FBI’s demands to help it hack the phones of suspected terrorists, they said.