(Reuters) – The Telegram messaging app, used by a wide range of Russian and Ukrainian officials during the war, only needs a small number of paid subscribers to cover its costs, founder Pavel Durov said on Tuesday.
Telegram Premium service users will get a higher limit for chats, media and file uploads, Durov said on June 10, noting that paid subscriptions would ensure the app remains funded primarily by users and not advertisers.
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"The beauty of Telegram Premium is that if just 2.5% to 3% of our users sign up for this subscription, Telegram will cover its costs, supported purely by its users," he said on Telegram on Tuesday.
"This will herald a new, user-centric era in the history of social media services."
Telegram has done the smart thing and launched its premium service for iOS users right now. Android users have a sticky record in paying for apps, and looking at Telegram’s paid offerings, they might not be encouraged to spend from their wallet yet again.
Telegram and Signal have signed up more messaging users due to growing concerns about privacy on larger rival WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms Inc. Telegram has 500 million monthly active users and is one of the 10 most downloaded apps in the world, according to its website.
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As we’ve mentioned before, these features don’t seem too tempting to make many people pay for an instant messaging app. Further, the features that already exist for free are still there.
Other than Telegram, we have seen Twitter come out with its own paid version called the Twitter Blue which is available in select countries for the time being. And while these platforms go the paid way, Netflix is now looking to enter the freemium segment, with its own ad-tier plan expected to roll out before end of 2022.
(With Reuters inputs)
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