Just months after launching the service, Telegram has reduced the monthly subscription fee for its premium tier in India by more than half in an effort to aggressively capitalise on a sizable user base in one of its key regions.

Telegram announced on Saturday that it was offering the subscription at a discount in India in a message to its users. Customers now pay 179 Indian rupees ($2.2) per month instead of the previous 469 Indian rupees ($5.74). In every other area, Telegram Premium, the app's monthly subscription, costs $4.99 to $6.

They claimed and TechCrunch independently verified that users who have not received the message can also view the new price in the app's settings.

One of Telegram's biggest markets is India. According to analytics company data.ai, there are over 120 million monthly active users of the instant messaging app in the nation. (An industry executive gave TechCrunch the numbers.) Due to WhatsApp, which has attracted more than 500 million users in the South Asian market, the app is now the second most popular in its category in the nation.

Telegram, which claims to have over 700 million monthly active users worldwide, launched the optional subscription service in June of this year in an effort to boost its financial situation while maintaining a free tier. Premium users have access to a variety of extra capabilities, including the capacity to send larger files (4GB) and to follow up to 1,000 channels.

The business with its headquarters in Dubai now joins a group of multinational tech companies that provide their services at lower prices in India. In the country, the individual monthly plan for Apple's music app costs $1.2, whilst the introductory price for Netflix's services is $1.83.