Signal Statistics: Usage, Revenue, & Key Facts

The Signal app has attracted some major buzz recently.

When WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy called for its users to accept that it would share user data with its parent company – Facebook, millions of users shifted to Signal in the quest for a secure messaging platform.

What is Signal?

Signal is an easy-to-use and secure messaging application that provides encrypted communications. It allows a user-friendly experience with group chats, video, image, gifs, audio, and video calling, all with end-to-end encryption. Even the app developers themselves can’t decrypt a message sent between 2 users.

• Website: Signal.org
• Developer: Signal Technology Foundation
• Launch Year: 2014
• Founders: Moxie Marlinspike and Stuart Anderson
• Key Managerial Personnel: Moxie Marlinspike (CEO), Aruna Harder (COO), Brian Acton (executive chairman of Signal Foundation), Meredith Whittaker (BOD – Signal Foundation)
• Headquarters: Mountain View, California

Signal was a result of a merger of RedPhone and TextSecure programs by Open Whispers in 2014.

Brian Acton, WhatsApp co-founder, injected $50 billion through the Signal Technology Foundation for app development.

Signal Statistics

Here are some key Signal statistics focusing on the company’s usage, revenue, funding, etc.

Download and Usage

• Signal downloads: 992,000 in January 2020 to 50.6 million in January 2021
• Signal weekly download rate: 50,000 weekly downloads till January 5th, 2021, to 7.7 million new downloads between January 6 and 11.
• Total downloads: more than 105 million downloads as of May, 2021
• Installs on devices: More than 50 million Android devices.
• Signal monthly active users: 20 million monthly active users by the end of 2020 and 40 million in 2021
• Signal monthly website visits: 2,993,058 as of July 2021
• Signal topping charts: Apple’s App Store in 40 countries and Google’s Play store charts in 18 countries as the number one free app.

The top countries are:

1. USA
2. UK
3. Germany
4. Lebanon
5. France

Signal finds its spot among the top three IM apps in countries like India, Singapore, and Brazil.

The app was downloaded 1.3 million times on January 11th, the highest recorded in a day, and the global installs showed a massive 5001% increase over the year and a 4200% increase in weekly downloads.

Signal’s download rates managed to expand 3.3 million times, beating WhatsApp at 1.7 million, Facebook 2.1 at million, and Instagram at 2.3 million downloads.

Signal, still not a leader?

Even though Signal saw a massive influx in the number of users because of its encrypted messaging policy, its moment was short-lived.

• Decline in Signal downloads: 86% decline during February 2021 – 7 million and around 40% over the next few months – 2.8 million.
• Monthly website visits dropped: -11.35%

In an attempt to find a replacement for WhatsApp, millions of users also shifted to Telegram – another instant messaging app. Like Signal, it showed a massive increase of 282.5% in the downloads from just 16.6 million in January 2020 to 63.5 million in January 2021.

Although Signal is the winner when it comes to security issues, Telegram has more to offer in terms of features. Users find all the popular features in the Telegram interface which makes them biased towards it.

From another point of view, infiltrating a massive army of 2.5 billion active WhatsApp users worldwide won’t come easy.

Signal Revenue

Signal app is developed by the Signal Technology Foundation, a non-profit entity that mainly relies on donations and charity.

• Largest donation: $50 million (now $105 million) zero interest loan by Brian Acton in 2018.
• Users who donate: Less than 1% of the Signal Messenger users donate to the Signal Technology Foundation.
• Revenues of Signal Foundation: $19.4 million as of FY2019 – a 3085.1% increase than FY2018 ($609,385)
• Grants and donations: $18 million
• Investment Income: $1 million
• Net Sales: $650k
• Miscellaneous Income: $171k
• Expenses: $13.5 million for FY 2019 – 162.9% spike
• Assets: $77.2 million for FY2019 – the downfall of 23.2%
• Liabilities: $38.3 million for FY 2019- 63.5% decrease

The Signal app provides an ad-free platform and is not dependent on the application for any source of revenue. The donation made by Brian Acton caused a major stir in the app development process.

Other Key Signal Facts

• The endorsements by Elon Musk and Edward Snowden played a major role in the sudden surge of downloads of the Signal Messenger App.
• Signal servers could not handle the spike in the newly registered users, which caused them to crash on January 15th, allowing limited access to users.
• Signal is the only private messenger app that doesn’t collect or share any user data with its developers.
• Signal is popularly used by journalists to hide sources and was increasingly used for communication by the Black Lives Matter protests organisers.

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

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