Telegram nears 500 million active users; will begin to monetise in 2021

As messaging app Telegram approaches 500 million active users, the platform will soon launch its monetising strategy, its founder Pavel Durov announced on Wednesday.

“As Telegram approaches 500 million active users, many of you are asking the question – who is going to pay to support this growth?” Durov said in a statement posted to his Telegram channel.

“For most of Telegram’s history, I paid for the expenses of the company from my personal savings. However, with its current growth Telegram is on track to reach billions of users and to require appropriate funding,” he said.

Durov added that he does not plan to sell the company “ like the founders of WhatsApp.” However, Telegram will begin to generate revenue, starting next year.

Pay-for-services model

The messaging platform plans to launch a pay-for-services model next year wherein premium users will pay for certain features. However, the features that are currently free for users will remain so.

“All the features that are currently free will stay free. We will add some new features for business teams or power users. Some of these features will require more resources and will be paid for by these premium users. Regular users will be able to keep enjoying Telegram – for free, forever,” Durov said.

The platform will also introduce a new Ad Platform for public one-to-many channels.

“If we monetize large public one-to-many channels via the Ad Platform, the owners of these channels will receive free traffic in proportion to their size. Or, if Telegram introduces premium stickers with additional expressive features, the artists who make stickers of this new type will also get a part of the profit,” Durov said.

Voice chat

Telegram also introduced a new Voice Chat feature on the platform on Wednesday. Voice Chats on Telegram are persistent conference calls that run in parallel to existing text chats.