Telegram tops 700 million customers, launches premium tier – TechCrunch

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Telegram has amassed over 700 million month-to-month lively customers and is rolling out a premium tier with further options as the moment messaging platform pushes to monetize a portion of its massive person 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 spread of further and improved options to the messaging app, which topped 500 million month-to-month lively customers in January 2021. Telegram Premium allows customers to ship information as massive as 4GB (up from 2GB) and helps sooner downloads, as an example, Telegram mentioned.
Paying clients will even be capable of 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 will even be capable of 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 maintain its improvement “pushed primarily by its customers, not advertisers,” it mentioned. It’s additionally the primary time an instantaneous messaging app with tons of of thousands and thousands of customers has rolled out a premium tier. Sign, WhatsApp, Fb Messenger, Apple’s Messages and Google’s Messages, a few of Telegram’s prime rivals, don’t supply a premium tier.
Some analysts had earlier hoped that Telegram would be capable of monetize the platform by its blockchain token undertaking. However after a number of delays and regulatory troubles, Telegram mentioned in 2020 that it had deserted the undertaking and provided to return $1.2 billion it had raised from traders.
In March 2021, Telegram raised over $1 billion from quite a lot of traders together with Mubadala and Abu Dhabi Catalyst Companions by promoting 5-year pre-IPO convertible bonds.
“Immediately is a crucial 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 mentioned in a weblog put up Sunday.
Telegram founder and chief govt Pavel Durov mentioned earlier this month the transfer to launch a premium tier was meant to answer person demand for extra storage/bandwidth.
“After giving it some thought, we realized that the one solution to let our most demanding followers get extra whereas maintaining our present options free is to make these raised limits a paid choice,” he mentioned.
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 will even have the flexibility to transform voice messages into texts, achieve entry to unique stickers and reactions and use animated photos as their profile pictures. Paying clients will even be capable of keep away from seeing advertisements 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 in addition proceed to construct new options for the non-paying viewers.
On Sunday, the agency mentioned it’s rolling out a characteristic, referred to as be a part of requests, to allow all customers to hitch a public group with out the necessity for an invitation hyperlink. One other new characteristic aimed toward free customers will make it attainable for verified teams and channels to indicate their badge on the prime of the chat. The brand new replace additionally helps rendering of animations at120 frames per second for brand new iPads and iPhones.
“This replace contains over 100 fixes and optimizations to the cell and desktop apps – eliminating bugs, enhancing velocity, and increasing minor options,” Telegram mentioned.
Information and picture: Bernstein.
In a observe to purchasers in Might this yr, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein reported that Telegram was getting “more and more aggressive” with its options. “Whereas WhatsApp and Messenger nonetheless comprise nearly all of messaging app downloads in our chosen group, Telegram has taken vital share from each apps, particularly Messenger,” they wrote.