The messaging platform Telegram is expected to introduce new paid services from next year. This news is confirmed by the founder Pavel Durov on his channel stating that the company will need a good amount of money for the maintenance of its services.
Telegram is popular in countries such as the former Soviet Union and Iran; in these countries, Telegram is mainly used for private communications, sharing information and news; since its launch 7 years ago, it has attracted nearly 500 million active users.
Pavel Durov from Russia said that he mainly uses personal savings to pay for company expenses; he believes that Telegram is expected to welcome billions of new users, which means that the application needs sufficient funds and revenue.
He assured users that due to the current scale of the application, it will be able to operate in a non-intrusive manner, and most users will hardly notice any changes; he said that all existing free functions on the application will remain free.
According to him, Telegram is committed to keeping users in an ad-free state when transmitting information; he said that the reason for this is because he believes that there should be no ads in communication between people.
Telegram plans to profit by adding new features for commercial teams or advanced users, but Pavel Durov did not indicate the paid services and other details.
He said: “Some users who need more features can become paid premium users, while ordinary users will be able to continue using Telegram for free.”
Pavel Durov said in the statement:
“If Telegram starts to make money, the community should also benefit; for example, if we profit from large public one-to-many channels through advertising platforms, the owners of these flat islands will get free traffic proportional to their scale.
Or, if Telegram launches the mapping function, the creators of the stickers will also get a part of the profit; we hope that millions of creators and small businesses based on Telegram will flourish and enrich the experience of all users.”
Pavel Durov, 36, revealed that he has no plans to sell the company and said: “The world needs Telegram to remain independent and become a place that respects users and guarantees high-quality services.”
“Telegram must continue to serve the world and become a model of a technology company pursuing perfection and integrity; and as the tragic example of our predecessor’s shows, if you become part of a company, you will not be able to stand alone.”
