How Does Telegram Generate Revenue? Exploring the Business Model of the Popular App in 2022

About Telegram

Before to answer How Does Telegram Make Money? let you know about Telegram.

Telegram is a messaging application with different platforms on various devices and performing systems. Telegram is accessible to download for mobiles, macOS, Windows, and Linux. Messaging through text, voice, and video is possible by Telegram, and they can be private or public in groups. Moreover, files with different forms like DOCX, MP3, ZIP, etc., and more than 2GB are exchanged in this application. The content exists in photos and videos, and you can spice them up with emojis, stickers, and GIFs. Also, it has an option which is following channels and groups. These features make this application beneficial for its users.

Telegram’s site is located in the United Arab Emirates in Dubai. Russian brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov founded it in 2013. Within a few weeks, More than 100,000 users downloaded the application within few weeks, and today, Telegram users are over one billion. Also, they employed 600 people in Dubai and all over the world. 

How Does Telegram Make Money?

The way that Telegram makes money is by selling sponsored messages, which lets the users expand their channels and bots. Durov brothers supported the company by investing billions of dollars. The company tried to perform its blockchain network and cryptocurrency token for about two years. Thus, the company can create its income in different ways, such as:

• the publication and keeping the GRAM token itself like what Binance and Ripple do
• the presentation of payment services, for example, peer-to-peer dealing or other business services
• the allocated memory of files
• a proxy service for making non-focused VPN services

Nevertheless, the SEC stopped the initiation of the blockchain network and the token too.

The founders believe that Telegram does not decide to make money. It will never sell advertisements, it will not accept any outside enterprise, and it will not be sold. Telegram would find a way to make money through non-essential paid options. Telegram usually makes money through the investments of its founders. But, Pavel Durov, CEO of the company, changed this stream, the company continues to increase the number of users. Durov asserts on his official Telegram account in March 2012 that with the increase of users, the costs will increase too. A big project like this needs a few hundred dollars each year to continue its work.

If Telegram start to make money, the community must benefit from it. As examples, if Telegram makes money through advertisements in channels, owners of the channels receive free traffic. Also, if Telegram introduces top stickers, the artists who create these stickers receive part of earnings. The founders want all the creators of Telegram and small businesses develop.

Telegram makes money by sponsored messages based on CPM, which means advertisers must pay Telegram for every 1000 views. Advertisers can assign a maximum budget to guarantee that they’re not spending too much. The data presented on their accounts allows them to know how many views those messages have, the spending budget, etc.

Telegram Business Model

The business model of Telegram is completely based on giving the users facilities to make them convenient. Although the company was established in 2013, it has not earned money too much. However, in 2018, Telegram had earned more than 1.7 billion dollars by an Initial Coin Offering. But, in 2019, SEC said that it was illegal and stopped their plan.

After that, one of the co-founders of the company, Durov, save this company by selling the Vk shares he had. But, Telegram has improved recently that the company makes money through its services. Durov, in 2020, declared in his own public channel that they make money by Telegram services. Telegram would not get any cost from its users, and also, it would not show any advertisements in private chats or groups that Telegram is looking for another way to make money.

Telegram is based on a very flat business model which is unique about this model is that Telegram was not created to get benefits. The purpose of Telegram is to create a handy platform for users in messaging with attractive features. These features include:

• Telegram has the ability to edit text after sending it. Also, you can delete them on both sides conveniently. 
• By accessing the cross-platform, you can access your messages with any device any moment. 
• It has the option of replying, hashtags, and mentioning to make the texts more profitable.
• The capability of muting any group that you do not get any non-essential notifications. 
• The power of pinning any message that the message will appear on the top of the chat list. 
• The option of sharing any files with a maximum capacity of 1.5 GB or more than that. 

In March 2014, Telegram had had 25 million downloads with almost 15 million users who sent over 8 billion messages in a month. Telegram advanced rapidly in increasing its users, and in 2021, Telegram had over 500 million users. Because of Telegram’s security and privacy, it attracted more users, which means that the popularity of Telegram is due to its security.

After the arguments about controlling messages in Kakao Talk by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, many Kakao Talk users move to Telegram for more privacy services. Also, in 2015, after banning Whatsapp in Brazil, Telegram had about 1.5 million downloads. Users prefer their privacy and security based on the recent news of the Cambridge Analytica Breach. The investment of Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov on Telegram is worth 3-5 billion dollars, and they said that they would never sell it. These are astonishing facts because Telegram has never spent any cents on promotion.

Conclusion

To sum up about How Does Telegram Make Money?, the application of Telegram has lots of options which makes it a beneficial application for its users. Telegram has a remarkable development in attracting users that it has over 500 million users. What makes Telegram a unique application is that the purpose of this application was not to gain profits. It was made to create a convenient platform for communicating with its users. However, it makes money through sponsored messages that advertisers should pay Telegram for every 1000 views.