At the beginning of January, the most common messaging service WhatsApp warned users about changes in the privacy policy. The message asked for permission of the data transfer from the messenger to Facebook and its subsidiaries, otherwise, users would not be able to use the app.

Many users saw a threat in such an agreement and instead of accepting the new terms of WhatsApp, switching to alternative services. So, in just a week, the Signal messenger was downloaded almost 8 million times, the application recommended by Elon Musk in his Twitter account. The funny fact is that many investors began to buy up shares of “Signal " in large quantities after the post of the richest man in the world. However, they made the wrong choice, investing in a little-known organization with a similar name. Over the past week, Signal was most often downloaded in India and the United States.

Telegram, which is already familiar to users, also grew strongly, its growth in the first week of January was 91%, and in the United States, the application became the second most downloaded among all mobile services of the multi-million market. In the very first days of the new year, tens of millions of people joined Telegram, and the total number of users exceeded half a billion. At the same time, there were rumors in the network that Apple now plans to remove Telegram from the App Store. Users receive messages with instructions on how to disable the automatic removal of apps on iOS.

Facebook, which among others owns, WhatsApp, began to lose not only the trust of the audience but also money. According to Forbes, against the background of what is happening, Mark Zuckerberg lost $3.9 billion for the day. The recent accident with Donald Trump does not add points to the company, his account was permanently blocked by the management of Twitter, and Facebook and its subsidiaries joined the eternal ban of the former US president.