Business Model of Telegram - How Does Telegram Make Money?

Business Model of Telegram - How Does Telegram Make Money?
Business Model of Telegram - How Does Telegram Make Money?

Following WhatsApp and Snapchat, Telegram was the third most downloaded messenger app worldwide. Based on downloads, India, Russia, and the US were the app's leading markets in 2023. It has 800 million monthly active users.

Telegram is amazingly free and open-source software that offers tons of facilities, such as cloud-based instant messaging, end-to-end encryption, and many others. Telegram offers its users dozens of interesting features. They can create their sticker sets as well as create bots. The users can create or join different channels that provide tons of fascinating content for users to subscribe to.

‌‌Telegram does not believe in selling ads for promotion because the personal data shared with advertisers could go against its ethos. That's why all the funding for Telegram comes directly from Pavel Durov. In case of increasing the revenue number, Telegram would begin users' donations funding or the freemium model.

In June 2022, Telegram switched to freemium when it introduced paid subscriptions. Additional features, such as double the number of channels they could follow, faster download speed, and premium stickers, were provided to the paying users. Reducing fees and taxes, the in-app revenue of the platform exceeded $1 million in October 2022. The largest share came from iOS users.

Monthly Active Telegram Users (September 2015 to August 2023)
Monthly Active Telegram Users (September 2015 to August 2023)

‌‌Telegram is a company that operates in fair secrecy and prioritizes its affirmation of freedom from any pressure that could come from the market or any other nationally assigned restrictions. Telegram has gained immense popularity among its customers in many countries across the globe. With this, Telegram holds over 800 million active users per month. Telegram works with a distinctive business model, which we will discuss in this article. Let's get started!

About Telegram
Business Model of Telegram
What Is Unique About the Business Model of Telegram
How does Telegram make money?
Key Features of Telegram
Target Audience of Telegram

About Telegram

Monthly web traffic of Telegram 335.76m visits
Number of paying customers 1m
Main age group of users 25-34 yrs
Share of male users 58.6%
Largest market by app downloads India
Monthly app downloads 34.8m
Leading global region by downloads APAC
Average time spent on Telegram by Android users worldwide 2.9 hours per month
Telegram Logo
Telegram Logo

‌‌The very popular open-source messaging application, Telegram provides various facilities to its customers, including file sharing, VoIP, end-to-end encryption on video calls, and many others. Telegram was founded in August 2013 by Nikolai Durov and Pavel Durov. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and in Dubai, UAE, by operational means. Telegram is the highest preferred messaging application in Uzbekistan and Iran. Today, Telegram has over 700 million active users.

In 2023, Telegram reached around 1 billion downloads, ranked by worldwide downloads, and is the 7th most popular non-gaming app in Google Play. Telegram is an open-source application, but its server is a closed source. More than 15 billion messages are sent through Telegram every day.

‌‌Telegram provides its server, which is distributed to five data centers located in various regions to minimize the company's data load. The operational centers are established in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, the legal center was established in London, United Kingdom.

Business Model of Telegram

Telegram Business Model | How Telegram Makes Money
Telegram Business Model | How Telegram Makes Money

‌‌Telegram's business model is entirely based on users' convenience and features. The company was founded in 2013, but it hasn't generated much revenue. Back in 2018, Telegram revealed its intentions to create its own blockchain network called Telegram Open Network (TON), as well as a cryptocurrency token called Gram. The goal of this project was to transform the way people communicate online by providing a secure and decentralized platform for various applications, including payments. Through an Initial Coin Offering, Telegram raised more than $1.7 billion. But later, in 2019, the SEC stopped this plan and announced it unlawful (The SEC alleged that Telegram's Gram tokens were unregistered securities and that the company had violated securities laws).

After this, the co-founder Durov kept the company up with the money he earned from selling the VK stake he owned.

‌‌But lately, Telegram has experienced immense growth because of this, the company monetized the service. In 2020, Durov announced on his public Telegram channel that they would be monetizing Telegram's services.

‌‌Telegram would not be charging any cost from the users, nor would it show any ads in private or group chats. That's why Telegram is looking forward to other methods to gain enough revenue.

What Is Unique About the Business Model of Telegram

‌‌Telegram runs on a very smooth business model, and the most unique thing about it is that Telegram wasn't made to gain profit. The messaging application Telegram was founded to make messaging handy for users with many fascinating features. It has a whole bunch of features that make it unique from the other applications.

These features are:

  • Telegram offers the option of editing the text after sending it. You can also delete them from both sides at your convenience.
  • You can access your messages anytime from any device through the availability of cross-platform.
  • Options of replying, hashtags, and mentioning to make your chatting more fruitful.
  • Feature to mute any group so that you don't get unnecessary notifications.
  • Feature to pin any message, which will be displayed at the top of the chat screen.
  • Share any file with a maximum size of 2 GB or more.

How does Telegram make money?

Telegram Revenue (In-App Purchases)
Telegram Revenue (In-App Purchases)

Telegram does not make any profit from its application and services. In 2020, there was zero revenue made. The founders believe in providing fast and secure messaging. ‌‌Telegram does not believe in selling ads for promotion because the personal data shared with advertisers could go against its ethos. Telegram. In June 2022, Telegram launched Telegram Premium, a subscription model that offers extended limits, faster download speed, and larger file uploads.

Although the company does have backup plans in case of urgent money, Telegram would look for non-essential paid options to generate money. Telegram prioritizes its customers the most and provides them with the best features for free. Telegram usually makes money from its founders, which is a significant Telegram income source. Telegram also started offering a variety of in-app purchases, such as premium stickers and emoji packs. These purchases generate revenue for Telegram through the App Store and Google Play Store.

Key Features of Telegram

‌‌Telegram offers tons of features to make messaging convenient for users. Some of the features are-

  • Lock Chat - where you can lock any of your chats with a password.
  • Self-destructing Media - where you can put a timer on any of your media, and it will be destroyed after that specific time.
  • Two-step verification - where you can protect your account from being hacked with two steps of verification.
  • Delete sender's messages - where you can delete any message or chat from both sides (receiver and sender).
  • Telegram Premium - It is a paid version of Telegram that includes exclusive additional features. Telegram Premium is featured with a higher upload size, fast download speed, Premium Stickers, Advanced Chat Management, and more.

Top 10 Telegram Bots 2023


WhatsApp Or Telegram: Which is Better and Why? | StatupTalky
Currently, there are so many messaging apps and services are available. But this field becomes a bit narrow if privacy and security are your main concerns. WhatsApp and Telegram are considered as the major apps in instant messaging apps. Let us discuss more about these two messaging tools.

Target Audience of Telegram

‌Telegram offers dozens of features and user preferences. The Telegram app is specially designed for people above the age of 16 years, with no parental controls overhead. This messaging application targets the youth with many end-to-end encrypted features.

Conclusion

‌‌We discussed Telegram's business model briefly with statistics. The founders believe in serving its users more than generating billions of dollars.

Telegram is a privacy-focused secure messaging application that has grown immensely in the last few years. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to Telegram. For now, we have the best knowledge regarding its business model.

FAQs

What is Telegram App?

Telegram is a cloud-based, cross-platform instant messaging service that offers fast, secure messaging, groups, channels, bots, and secret chats.

How does Telegram make money?

Till 2020, Telegram hadn't made money. It is a free app that runs on donations and funding. It has started to monetize by offering non-essential paid options like premium stickers.

How much is Telegram's revenue?

‌‌Telegram does not make any profit from its application and services. As of 2020, there is zero revenue made. However, they have started their in-app purchases and generated $1.6 million in January 2023.

Who is the founder and CEO of Telegram?

Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov founded Telegram in 2013. Pavel Durov is also Telegram's CEO.

What is Telegram's business model?

Telegram's business model is entirely based on users' convenience and features. It runs on a very smooth business model, and the most unique thing about it is that Telegram wasn't made to gain profit. Telegram's messaging application was founded to make messaging handy for users with many fascinating features.

Is Telegram an Indian app?

No, Telegram was created by a Germany-based tech organization - Durov Software Industry.

Which is the best alternative for Telegram?

Signal messaging app is the best alternative for Telegram.

Who are the top competitors of Telegram?

Telegram's top competitors include:

  • Viber
  • Signal
  • WhatsApp
  • Slack
  • Intis Telecom

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