Telegram appears to be experimenting with a new business model for its wildly popular chat software. As initially reported by Android Police, beta testers for Telegram’s iOS app noted something new in version 8.7.2: a new collection of stickers and reaction emoji that can only be unlocked “by subscribing to Telegram Premium. Users with access to Telegram’s TestFlight builds and Test Server can give each other exploding-heart and flying-ghost replies and a sticker featuring that cute blobby yellow duck who is just too sad to bear, and a few other new items. And it looks that, in the end, even the recipients of such messages will be affected.
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There’s no news on how much Premium will cost, when (or even if) it will be available to the general public, or what other services might be included in the membership. However, Telegram takes a long time to offer membership like this. “Telegram will begin to produce revenue, starting next year,” declared Founder Pavel Durov in late 2020 to avoid selling out like WhatsApp or disappearing like so many other messaging apps. He suggested a proposal for advertising on Telegram’s huge channels, saying the platform “will add some new tools for corporate teams or power users” for a fee.
Telegram’s approach to paid services mirrors the Discord model of chat app monetization, based on what we know thus far. The Discord Nitro subscription is $10 a month and gives power users more toys to play with, including more emojis, increased video and audio bandwidth, improved badges and avatars, etc. Nitro isn’t required for users to use Discord, but it has proven successful enough to persuade Discord that it’s a viable economic strategy.
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Durov also stated that in 2020, all of Telegram’s free features, including those related to private chat, will remain free. That’s the trick with messaging apps: the way to make money is to discover additional things for users to do in and with the app, rather than getting in the middle of friends’ talks. That’s why the idea of a WeChat-style “super app” is so appealing. Telegram is likely to keep finding new methods to make money as it expands into live streaming, chatbots, cryptocurrencies, and other areas.
But how can you make money without enraging your customers? That’s more difficult. Last October, when adverts began to appear on Telegram channels, authors and users alike reacted so forcefully that Durov said that a means to turn them off would be built. (If I’m reading tea leaves correctly, I’m guessing that a Premium subscription includes the ability to disable adverts.) That could be one of the reasons Telegram is taking things slowly and starting small rather than switching to a freemium model.
Nonetheless, with more than 500 million users on the network, Telegram may only need to persuade a small number of them to enrol in order to become the break-even company Durov has long claimed.