A few days before the Russian authorities started blocking access to Telegram, advertisements for another chat app started appearing in major Russian newspapers and even on several Telegram channels. The service, dubbed ‘TamTam,’ touts itself as a “complete copy of Telegram” and “another messenger with channels,” positioning itself to replace Telegram in Russia.
TamTam is owned by Mail.Ru Group, a leading Russian Internet player. According to the group’s website, TamTam reached a combined 3 million installations on iOS and Android devices in September 2017. By comparison, Telegram claimed some 15 million users in Russia befor it was banned by the authorities.
Mail.ru Group claims that TamTam is also popular in Iran. On April 7, however, the Iranian authorities blocked TamTam, perhaps due to the fact that several TamTam channels were reportedly traced to ISIS.
