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· Posted on
February 21, 2024

Instant messaging app Telegram unveiled a premium makeover but ya gotta pay up to see it

Telegram is one of the few instant messaging apps with a clear monetisation plan. Take that, WhatsApp!

What's the key learning?

  • Dubai-based instant messaging app, Telegram, increased its active users by almost 50% in the last 18 months, from 500 million to 700 million.
  • Now, it plans to launch a premium version of its app - and is one of the few messaging apps with monetisation plans
  • Monetisation has become the biggest question mark for the instant messaging industry. WeChat has successfully done it... WhatsApp? Not so much.

👉 Background: Telegram is an instant messaging app kinda like WhatsApp or Signal. It was launched back in 2013 and is based in Dubai. Telegram is most well-known for its fully-encrypted messaging service.

👉 What happened: Telegram increased its active users by almost 50% in the last 18 months, from 500 million to 700 million. Now, the company's launching a premium version of its app.

👉 What else: This is the first time an instant messaging app with hundreds of millions of users has shown clear monetisation plans.

What's the key learning?

💡 Monetisation has become the biggest question mark for the instant messaging industry. On the one hand, you’ve got WeChat, which monetised by expanding out its messaging service to become a super-app with everything from food delivery to wallets.

💡On the other hand, Facebook acquired WhatsApp and is slowly generating revenue through its new WhatsApp Business API. But it's still early days for these initiatives.

💡Telegram previously abandoned an attempt at a blockchain payments system and also tried allowing ads on its public channels which drew VERY negative feedback. Now, it's trying something new and hoping even a teeny tiny percentage of its 700 million users will buy in.

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