Telegram CEO Pavel DurovEarlier confirmed, given that the service has accumulated more than 5 million users and the annual server traffic costs are as high as hundreds of millions of dollars, additional revenue sources must be added to balance the huge expenditure.
Pavel Durov expects that Telegram will break its previous commitment to not placing advertisements. In the future, it will increase additional revenue through advertising and exposure to a large number of users.
According to the original plan, Telegram mainly used the $34 billion investment from Pavel Durov as operating capital, supplemented by revenue from the "TON" blockchain service and the initial coin offering of the cryptocurrency Gram, to support the huge traffic expenditure costs.
However, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission determined that Gram did not comply with listing regulations, it required 72% of the financing to be returned to U.S. investors, forcing Telegram to find other sources of revenue support.
Compared to the previous ad-free operation, Pavel Durov said that in the future, advertisements on Telegram will not appear in one-on-one or group chat pages, but will only appear on official LINE accounts, allowing brands to place promotional advertisements on dedicated pages. This will allow advertisers to increase advertising exposure through the large number of Telegram users, and Telegram will also be able to obtain advertising space sales revenue.
On the other hand, in the future, Telegram will also allow general users to create sticker content and put it on sale, allowing users to earn extra income while also allowing Telegram to obtain additional profits, which will become the necessary funds to support operations.
According to Pavel Durov, Telegram will continue to maintain a free-to-use model in the future. While currently providing free functions, it will not switch to a paid model in the future. He also emphasized that the advertising content appearing on the page will not affect user operations, and Telegram will not be resold to others.
