Telegram has been experimenting in the crypto space for years. Now the messenger service is taking another step: users want to share in the platform’s advertising revenue. The company shared this in one Blog post with. The Telegram-related blockchain Toncoin acts as the foundation of the project. But what exactly is it about?
The Telegram community had to wait a long time for this, now it has happened. In the future, the messenger service will share its users with advertising revenue. CEO Pavel Durov took a corresponding step at the end of February announced.
Anyone who operates channels on the social network will be able to place advertising in the future. All “channels” that have at least 1,000 subscribers are qualified. The owners of the channels can then place special advertising via Toncoin, with 50 percent of the revenue generated from this being returned.
The function was originally supposed to be activated in almost 100 countries. In the current communication, some states such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel were excluded. SOUND-based advertising is not yet displayed in Germany either.
But one thing is clear: Telegram is radically changing its sales model. Previously, the company focused primarily on selling premium memberships. In 2023, sales totaled around $45 million – a fraction of what industry giant Meta earns with its platforms Facebook, Instagram and Co. In the same period, Mark Zuckerberg’s group of companies earned almost $135 billion.
With the new concept, Telegram is looking for growth opportunities. There seems to still be a lot of room for improvement in the advertising sector. In the statement, Pavel Durov also pointed out the problem. Broadcast channels have access numbers of one trillion views per month. But only ten percent would be monetized.
Settlement via Toncoin’s blockchain
Now blockchain technology should take care of it. More specifically, that of Toncoin (TON). Developed at the time by Telegram, the project emancipated itself from its creators due to regulatory difficulties with the SEC. But we never lost sight of each other. Apps from the TON ecosystem can still be integrated directly into Telegram as bots.
The relationship is now being deepened further through the new, ambitious project. The entire payment processing process should run via Toncoin. Channel operators who opt for Telegram’s participation program will be compensated in TON, the crypto project’s native coin. As a result, the news caused TON’s share price to explode. Since the beginning of the year, the coin has gained almost 120 percent, peaked at $5.41 and is trading at $5.04 at the time of writing.
The move not only marks a “turning point” at Telegram, but could also prove to be an important adoption driver for the entire crypto sector. Around 800 million people use the messenger service every month. Users who were previously not really familiar with blockchain, crypto, etc. will be introduced to these topics through the participation program and may thus recognize the advantages of the technology.
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