The Telegram developer announces that it will start monetizing from the almost 500 million users.
The founder Pavel Durov intends to end the financing provided from his own sources in the last seven years, looking for other ways to support the business. “A project our size needs at least a few hundred million dollars a year to continue,” he said.
Like Facebook and other popular social platforms, Telegram will start displaying ads in the mobile application. Thus, Telegram will develop its own advertising platform, offering promotion through the numerous public channels frequented by users.
The new service is “easy to use, respects privacy and allows us to cover server and traffic costs,” says Pavel Durov on his Telegram channel. “If we monetize the big public channels through the advertising platform, their owners will also have something to gain, receiving free traffic proportional to the size of the channel.”
Another way Telegram could monetize its service is by displaying premium stickers with “additional expressive features,” he wrote. “Artists who make stickers of this type will also receive a share of the profit. We want millions of creators and small companies active on Telegram to prosper, enriching the experience of all our users. ”
All existing features will remain free, said Durov, the Telegram developer promising not to place ads in one-to-one or group private chats, which is a “bad idea”.
We will not sell the company as the founders of WhatsApp. The world needs Telegram to remain an independent place where users are respected and they are provided with a high quality service “, he wrote. “Telegram will start generating revenue starting next year. We will do it in accordance with our values and the promises we have made in the last 7 years. Due to our current size, we will be able to do it in a non-intrusive way. Most users will hardly notice any change. “
