Business Model of Telegram

Following WhatsApp and Snapchat, Telegram was the third most downloaded messenger app worldwide. Based on downloads, India, Russia, and the US were the app’s leading markets in 2022. It has 31.84 million monthly downloads.

Telegram is amazingly free and open-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.

In June 2022, Telegram switched to freemium when it introduced paid subscriptions. Additional features, such as double the amount of channels they could follow, faster download speed, and premium stickers were provided to the Paying users. Reducing fees and taxes, the in-app revenue of the platform exceeded $1 million in October 2022. The largest share came from iOS users.

Telegram users over time (March 2014 to November 2022)

‌‌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 over 700 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

How does telegram make money?

Mục Lục

About Telegram

Monthly web traffic of Telegram
274.3m visits

Number of paying customers
257k

Main age group of users
25-34 yrs

Share of male users
57.6%

Largest market by app downloads
India

Monthly app downloads
31.84m

Leading global region by downloads
APAC

Average time spent on Telegram by Android users worldwide
3h per month

Telegram Logo

‌‌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. Telegram is the highest preferred messaging application in Uzbekistan and Iran. Today, Telegram has over 700 million active users.

In 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 a 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.

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 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 2 GB and more.

How does Telegram make money?

‌‌Telegram does not make any profit from its application and services. In 2020, there is zero revenue made. The founders believe in providing the facility of fast and secure messaging 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).
Telegram Premium – It is a paid version of Telegram that includes exclusive additional features. Telegram Premium is featured with a higher upload size, fast download speed, Premium Stickers, Advanced Chat Management, and more.

Target Audience of Telegram

‌‌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

‌‌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-focused 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.

FAQs

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.