Popular messaging platform Telegram has announced that it is launching a new premium tier of its services as it seeks to monetize a portion of its userbase. Reaching over 700 million monthly active users, the new tier answers these users’ need for more bandwidth and storage capacity, according to company CEO Pavel Durov.
Telegram’s new premium tier to expand user functionality
Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in cryptocurrency circles, has announced that it will be introducing a paid premium tier of its services that will allow its users to access new features and expand on something already available. The move comes as the company is looking to monetize a good portion of its user base, which recently reached a milestone of 700 million monthly active users.
According to CEO Pavel Durov, the premium tier is the answer to the needs of a group of users who wanted to upgrade their bandwidth and storage from within the app. He said:
After giving it a little thought, we realized that the only way for our most demanding fans to get more while keeping their existing features free is to make those increased limits a paid option.
Among the new features available to paid users are expanding the number of channels they can follow — up from 1,000, 500 that the free tier offers — and the creation of 20 chat folders with 200 chats in each folder. Too. The price of this new service tier has not been disclosed in writing, but according to TechCrunch, estimates are closer to the six-dollar mark.
road to monetization
This is not the first attempt by Telegram to monetize services on the platform, which provides messaging and content management systems to thousands of individuals and companies around the world. The company introduced sponsored messages last year, which allowed advertisers to post such messages across large channels with more than 1,000 subscribers.
However, the biggest monetization effort was Telegram’s launch of its own token, called Gram. The initiative managed to collect more than $1 billion from investors around the world, but was eventually shut down by the US SEC, which issued a temporary restraining order against the company in 2019. This left Telegram to abandon the launch of the token, and also to fine the institution, to return the money to investors.
What do you think about the new premium user tier being launched by Telegram? Tell us in the comments section below.
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