In his Telegram channel, Pavlo Durov shared an achievement – the paid version of the messenger, Telegram Premium, gained more than a million subscribers in 5 months of its existence. Durov expressed his admiration for the fees and how revenue from paid subscriptions will help make Telegram more valuable to users.
“While some other apps view their users as a tool to maximize revenue, we view revenue as a tool to maximize value for our users.”
Pavlo explained that the subscription helps to pay for traffic, servers, pay employees and develop new features. The head of Telegram noted that revenue from subscriptions is quite capable of competing with funds received from advertising. Durov confirmed commitment to a focused approach and a course on further development of functionality. Here is a translation of his post:
“It’s been a year since Telegram started monetization, but the results have already exceeded our expectations.
Unlike other programs, we took a privacy-conscious approach to advertising: we decided that no personal data should be used for targeting, and that promoted messages should only appear in public one-to-many channels. Despite this, our advertising significantly outperformed the market and put Telegram on the path to financial sustainability.
Telegram Premium, which we introduced just 5 months ago, quickly surpassed 1 million subscribers and became one of the most successful examples of social media subscriptions ever launched. Although it is still only a fraction of Telegram’s total revenue, Telegram Premium is growing steadily every day and will one day even compete with our ads.
The future looks exciting. The additional monetization strategies I discussed in previous posts are already paying off, and the features we’re working on now will lay the foundation for Telegram’s continued financial growth in 2023.
With successful monetization, Telegram will be able to pay for the servers, traffic, and wages needed to build new features and maintain existing ones. While some other programs view their users as a tool to maximize revenue, we view revenue as a tool to maximize value for our users.
Fragment auction functionality based on the TON blockchain has also recently been expanded. Any user can now sell and buy names, and more are expected. Pavlo Durov expressed his commitment to the initial values of the blockchain and announced plans to create a number of decentralized services.
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