Telegram has announced that it is close to reaching a whopping 500 million active users. The one who issued this statement was the co-founder Pavel Durov through his public channel on the platform.
In summary, the senior executive announced what has already been said and that in the near future there will be new functions. Beyond the news that they will offer, those included in the monetization plan will be paid, so they will not be accessible for free as we currently do with all the ones we already know from Telegram. However, existing features will continue to be available for free, while more new features will continue to be added in the future that will also be free, so you won't have to pay for them.
Soon you will have to pay for exclusive functions on Telegram
500 million users is said to be easy, but this suggests a more expensive maintenance for Telegram as a company, and that is why the new monetization plan has been announced, which will include premium functions for companies and advanced users, in order to maintain the instant messaging service.
The monetization plan will be implemented next year (2021), although there is still no exact date for it. You can see the official statement through the following link, which leads to Pavel Durov's Telegram channel, or take a look below already translated:
“As Telegram approaches 500 million active users, many of you are wondering: who is going to pay to support this growth? After all, more users mean more traffic and server costs. A project of our size needs at least a few hundred million dollars a year to continue.
For most of Telegram's history, I paid for company expenses with my personal savings. However, with its current growth, Telegram is on its way to reaching billions of users and requiring adequate funding. When a technology project reaches this scale, there are generally two options: start making money to cover costs or sell the company.
Hence the question: which path will Telegram take? I would like to make a few points to clarify our plan:
1. We are not going to sell the company like the founders of WhatsApp. The world needs Telegram to remain independent as a place where users are respected and high-quality service is guaranteed. Telegram must continue to serve the world as an example of a technology company that strives for perfection and integrity. And, as the sad examples of our predecessors show, that's impossible if you become part of a corporation.
2. Telegram is here to stay for a long time. We started developing our apps for our personal use over 8 years ago and have come a long way since then. In the process, Telegram changed the way people communicate in various ways: encryption, functionality, simplicity, design, speed. This journey has just begun. There is much more that we can, and will bring, to the world.
3. To make points 1 and 2 possible, Telegram will start generating income from next year. We will do so in accordance with our values and the promises we have made for the past 7 years. Thanks to our current scale, we will be able to do it in a non-intrusive way. Most users will hardly notice any changes.
4. All features that are currently free will remain free. We will add some new features for business teams or advanced users. Some of these features will require more resources and will be paid for by these premium users. Regular users can continue to enjoy Telegram, free, forever.
5. All parts of Telegram dedicated to messaging will remain ad-free. We think showing ads in private 1-on-1 chats or group chats is a bad idea. Communication between people must be free of advertising of any kind.
6. In addition to its messaging component, Telegram has a social media dimension. Our massive one-to-many public channels can have millions of subscribers each and are more like Twitter feeds. In many markets, channel owners display ads to earn money, sometimes using third-party ad platforms. The ads they post look like regular messages and are often intrusive. We will fix this by introducing our own advertising platform for public one-to-many channels, one that is easy to use, respects privacy, and allows us to cover server and traffic costs.
7. If Telegram starts making money, the community should also benefit. For example, if we monetize large one-to-many public channels through 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, artists who make stickers of this new type will also get a share of the proceeds. We want millions of Telegram-based creators and small businesses to prosper, enriching the experience for all of our users.
This is the Telegram way.
It will allow us to continue to innovate and grow for decades to come. We will be able to launch countless new features and welcome billions of new users. While we do that, we will remain independent and true to our values, redefining how a technology company should operate. "
