Almost a year after Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder announced that the instant messaging app would try to monetize the app by adding the option to advertise on channels for a fee, it has happened.
In the past, Telegram has attempted to earn money by creating a cryptocurrency operation, but the idea failed. Now, the firm will now allow ads on its platform in a limited capacity. You won’t see any ads in your private chats or channels:
Advertising on Telegram
Sponsored messages on Telegram will be displayed in large public one-to-many channels with 1000+ subscribers and are limited to 160 characters. Sponsored Messages are based solely on the topic of the public channels in which they are shown.
But instead of global brands, the first ad messages are promoted channels and bots from Telegram.
Telegram’s terms state that you’ll need to make an advance payment of €2 million to start publishing ads — out of which, €1 million is a refundable deposit. You can read more about it here.
According to Telegram, this means that no user data is mined or analyzed to display ads, and every user viewing a particular channel on Telegram sees the same sponsored messages.
If you hate ads, don’t worry. The company said it’s working on a subscription option that’ll let you pay to turn off all ads. However, there’s no mention of how much you’ll need to pay for it as of now.
“Unlike other apps, Telegram doesn’t track whether users tap on a sponsored message and doesn’t profile them based on their activity. We also prevent external links in sponsored messages to ensure that third parties can’t spy on our users. We believe that everyone has the right to privacy, and technological platforms should respect that.”
Revenue sharing with channel owners
Sponsored Messages are currently in test mode. Once they are fully launched and allow Telegram to cover its basic costs, Telegram will start sharing ad revenue with the owners of public channels in which sponsored messages are displayed.
