Pavel Durov, one of the co-founders of Telegram, warned on June 10, on his favorite appthat a Premium version was going to come out ” this month “. The hypothesis of a paid version of messaging has been discussed since 2020.
Telegram Premium will not harm free users
Pavel Dourov justifies the appearance of a paid version by user requests and the preservation of the free application. He writes ” After some thought, we realized that the only way to allow our most discerning fans to get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those higher limits chargeable. “.
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To further reassure messaging users who are reluctant to switch to paying, Dourov explains that they will indirectly benefit from new services. Among them, the display of documents, media, stickers…
On the paying side, the founder of Telegram was less verbose, simply describing ” a subscription plan that allows everyone to acquire additional features, speed and resources “.
The Vergewho had access to the beta version of the paid option, mentions several things, an increase in the size of downloadable files, increased download speed, a voice-to-text converter, advanced chat management… All of this for 4.99 dollars (4.78 euros).
The race for monetization
The monetization of Telegram and its 500 million users remains relatively mysterious TechCrunch. The Premium could be an option in this sense or simply cover the maintenance costs of the messaging servers. The attempt to create a cryptocurrency, Gram, failed a year ago under hostility from the United States.
At the same time, Pavel Dourov was pleased that advertising experiences on public channels were ” more conclusive than expected », but seems to reject this solution. According to him ” Telegram should be funded primarily by its users, not advertisers “.