Business Model of Telegram - How does Telegram make money?

Business Model of Telegram - How does Telegram make money?

Telegram is an amazingly open and free 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 the entire 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. Telegram was never meant to gain profit, it runs on "Gaining Profit will never be Telegram's end goal."

The platform plans to generate revenue starting next year to keep the business afloat, its founder Pavel Durov said. Telegram could monetize its service through premium stickers with “additional expressive features" and non-essential paid options to make money, Durov added.

‌‌Telegram is a company that operates in fair secrecy and prioritizes its affirmation towards 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 around 500 million active users per month. Telegram works with a distinctive business model which we would 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

‌‌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. In fact, Telegram is the highest preferred messaging application in Uzbekistan and Iran. Today, Telegram has over 500 million active users but by the time of 2022, the company aims to take the users over one billion.

As of 2020, Telegram reached around 540 million downloads among which 500 million are from Android devices. Telegram is an open-source application but its server comes as closed source. More than 15 billion messages are sent through Telegram every day.

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

Business Model of Telegram

Business Model of Telegram - How does Telegram make 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. In 2018, 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.

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 stating that they will be monetizing Telegram's services.

‌‌Telegram would not be charging any cost from the users, nor would 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 absolutely unique from the other applications.

These features are,

  • Telegram offers the feature of editing after sending the text. 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 and that message will be displayed at the top of the chat screen.
  • Share any file with a maximum size of 1.5 GB and more.

How does Telegram make money?

‌‌Telegram does not make any profit from its application and services. As of 2020, there is zero revenue made. The founders believe in providing the facility of fast and secure messaging absolutely free. ‌‌Telegram does not believe in selling ads for promotion because the personal data shared with advertisers could go against its ethos.

‌‌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 funding from its founders.

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 with two steps of verification from being hacked.
  • Delete sender's messages, where you can delete any message or chat from both sides (receiver and sender).

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.
Business Model of Telegram - How does Telegram make money?

Target Audience of Telegram

Business Model of Telegram - How does Telegram make money?
Telegram users over time

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

Conclusion

‌‌Through this, we got the clear image that Telegram does not generate money, especially not from its users and services. We discussed the business model of Telegram briefly with the statistics. The founders believe in serving its users more than generating billions of dollars.

Telegram is a privacy-focussed 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 outcast our best knowledge regarding its business model.

FAQ

How does Telegram make money?

Until recently, Telegram doesn't make money. It is a free app that runs on donations and funding. It plans to monetize soon by offering non-essential paid options like premium stickers, etc.,

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. Though, In 2018, through an Initial Coin Offering Telegram raised more than $1.7 billion.

Who is the founder of Telegram?

Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov founded telegram in 2013.

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. The messaging application Telegram was founded to make messaging handy for users with many fascinating features.

Is Telegram an Indian app?

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

Source :- https://startuptalky.com/ Author :- Pratyusha Srivastava Date :-February 22, 2022 at 05:32PM

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