Telegram has amassed over 700 million month-to-month lively customers and is rolling out a premium tier with extra options as the moment messaging platform pushes to monetize a portion of its massive consumer base. The agency didn’t disclose how a lot it’s charging for the premium tier, however the month-to-month subscription seems to be priced within the vary of $5 to $6.
The premium tier provides a variety of extra and improved options to the messaging app, which topped 500 million month-to-month lively customers in January 2021. Telegram Premium permits customers to ship recordsdata as massive as 4GB (up from 2GB) and helps sooner downloads, as an example, Telegram stated.
Paying prospects may even have the ability to observe as much as 1,000 channels, up from 500 provided to free customers, and create as much as 20 chat folders with as many as 200 chats every. Telegram Premium customers may even have the ability to add as much as 4 accounts within the app and pin as much as 10 chats.
The transfer is Dubai-headquartered agency’s try and preserve its growth “pushed primarily by its customers, not advertisers,” it stated. It’s additionally the primary time an instantaneous messaging app with a whole lot of tens of millions of customers has rolled out a premium tier. Sign, WhatsApp, Fb Messenger, Apple’s Messages and Google’s Messages, a few of Telegram’s high rivals, don’t supply a premium tier.
Some analysts had earlier hoped that Telegram would have the ability to monetize the platform by means of its blockchain token venture. However after a number of delays and regulatory troubles, Telegram stated in 2020 that it had deserted the venture and provided to return $1.2 billion it had raised from buyers.
In March 2021, Telegram raised over $1 billion from quite a lot of buyers together with Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Companions by promoting 5-year pre-IPO convertible bonds.
“Right now is a vital day within the historical past of Telegram – marking not solely a brand new milestone, but additionally the start of Telegram’s sustainable monetization,” the agency stated in a weblog put up Sunday.
Telegram founder and chief government Pavel Durov stated earlier this month the transfer to launch a premium tier was meant to answer consumer demand for added storage/bandwidth.
“After giving it some thought, we realized that the one solution to let our most demanding followers get extra whereas preserving our current options free is to make these raised limits a paid possibility,” he stated.
In India, the premium model is priced at $6 for iPhone customers. Alex Barredo, a Spain-based expertise commentator, reported seeing €5.49 ($5.77) because the month-to-month price. A Telegram spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Premium customers may even have the flexibility to transform voice messages into texts, acquire entry to unique stickers and reactions and use animated footage as their profile images. Paying prospects may even have the ability to keep away from seeing adverts on the app. (In some markets, sponsored messages are proven in massive, public one-to-many channels.)
Durov has pledged to maintain quite a lot of core options within the app free to customers and likewise proceed to construct new options for the non-paying viewers.
On Sunday, the agency stated it’s rolling out a characteristic, known as be part of requests, to allow all customers to affix a public group with out the necessity for an invitation hyperlink. One other new characteristic aimed toward free customers will make it potential for verified teams and channels to point out their badge on the high of the chat. The brand new replace additionally helps rendering of animations at120 frames per second for brand spanking new iPads and iPhones.
“This replace consists of over 100 fixes and optimizations to the cell and desktop apps – eliminating bugs, bettering pace, and increasing minor options,” Telegram stated.
Information and picture: Bernstein.
In a word to purchasers in Might this 12 months, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein reported that Telegram was getting “more and more aggressive” with its options. “Whereas WhatsApp and Messenger nonetheless comprise the vast majority of messaging app downloads in our chosen group, Telegram has taken important share from each apps, particularly Messenger,” they wrote.
