Instant messaging app Telegram is eyeing generating revenue from the next year. The company has announced that it will begin monetizing the app. The platform is nearing to touch the 500 million-mark of users worldwide. Its founder Pavel Durov has confirmed the plan of monetizing the service. Pavel Durov, however, said that the company will not charge the users for the services. According to Durov, features that are free at the moment will stay free for the users. This means Telegram’s regular users will be able to keep enjoying its services for free. He said that Telegram will get some new features that will be made available to business teams and users as well.
The new features will need extra resources and will be made available after paying a charge. He said that Telegram will also launch a dedicated platform for advertisements. Durov added that displaying advertisements one to one in chats or groups is not a wise deal always. The new ad platform will be for the public one-to-many Telegram channels. He added that the model will multiply users’ base in millions. He said that it can have millions of subscribers and underlined that the platform also has a social networking dimension. The latest development is seen as an alert to WhatsApp which has time and again opposed monetization.
Durov said that multiple channel owners are already making money by displaying ads on their pages. They sometimes use third-party platforms to earn. These ads’ content are designed to appear just like a normal post. They are intrusive in general. He said that the idea behind launching a dedicated platform for advertisement is to fix this leakage. He promised that the new platform will be user friendly and respects their privacy. It will help Telegram to cover servers’ costs. Telegram has earned popularity in recent years because messages exchanged on the platform are securely encrypted. It has over 400 million active monthly users as of April 2020. Durov specifically mentioned that he has no plans to sell the platform just like WhatsApp.
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