In a juvenile yet clever move, Telegram’s CEO has launched a destroyer-of-the-competition contest, with the prize pot worth $50,000, inviting users to showcase how Telegram is years ahead of WhatsApp in terms of features.
Taking a dig at WhatsApp’s sluggish development, he argues that WhatsApp users are living in the past, utilising innovations that are years old and already available on Telegram.
The competition appears to be in response to accusations that Meta had been running a smear campaign against Telegram.
In a similar vein, Telegram is encouraging users to create viral content with its innovative (and possibly AI-powered) hashtag challenge, TelegramYearsAhead.
The impact has been significant, with YouTube Shorts flooded with bashful content, cleverly incentivising its user base to act as a decentralised PR team.
This is the latest move in the ongoing cold war between the two messaging platforms.
