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Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

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Re: Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

#51

Post by rozab »

tw04 wrote: post #2

Do they really need advertisers? I'm not sure why all these companies think the whatsapp route isn't possible. People are happy to pay a small yearly subscription for apps if they're truly doing something useful. While I don't personally use telegram, I'd argue it falls into the category of "useful enough to pay for".

Although I suspect Discord is still some way from profitability, it's monetisation strategy seems to be working well (charge subscription for premium membership with small features like custom emojis, animated profile pics, better audio quality). A surprising amount of people go for it.

Telegram has many nerdy hobby communities which could buy the cosmetics or whatever and subsidise the service for the normal users.

Re: Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

#53

Post by ignoramous »

cyrksoft wrote: post #5
tw04 wrote: post #2

Do they really need advertisers? I'm not sure why all these companies think the whatsapp route isn't possible. People are happy to pay a small yearly subscription for apps if they're truly doing something useful. While I don't personally use telegram, I'd argue it falls into the category of "useful enough to pay for".

I use Telegram a lot and would gladly pay for it. However, that route is not so easy. People in Latin American countries can't really afford to pay for apps. If they have to choose between a free WhatsApp (who everybody uses) and a fee (which can be high in real terms for poorer countries) they will choose WhatsApp. They can also do what companies like Steam and Netflix do, charge a differentiated fee by country. Som…

> However, that route is not so easy. People in Latin American countries can't really afford to pay for apps.

AdGuard and Cloudflare (at least for Warp+) adjust their monthly and annual subscription rates based on location.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index

Re: Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

#55

Post by moritonal »

rozab wrote: post #51
tw04 wrote: post #2

Do they really need advertisers? I'm not sure why all these companies think the whatsapp route isn't possible. People are happy to pay a small yearly subscription for apps if they're truly doing something useful. While I don't personally use telegram, I'd argue it falls into the category of "useful enough to pay for".

Although I suspect Discord is still some way from profitability, it's monetisation strategy seems to be working well (charge subscription for premium membership with small features like custom emojis, animated profile pics, better audio quality). A surprising amount of people go for it. Telegram has many nerdy hobby communities which could buy the cosmetics or whatever and subsidise the service for the normal users.

A thing that a lot of people pay for is the better video screen sharing quality. People are happy to have "just about okay" for free, and "good" for a subscription fee.

Re: Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

#57

Post by maneesh »

ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4
tw04 wrote: post #2

Do they really need advertisers? I'm not sure why all these companies think the whatsapp route isn't possible. People are happy to pay a small yearly subscription for apps if they're truly doing something useful. While I don't personally use telegram, I'd argue it falls into the category of "useful enough to pay for".

I’ve used Telegram for years now, along with almost all my family and friends. I’m a huge fan of it, and it’s basically the only IM I use anymore (other than Signal with some tech friends). If Telegram adds ads, rather than offer us a chance to just pay them, I’ll delete it instantly and push everyone I know to do the same. I absolutely despise ads of any kind, and go to a decent amount of effort to block them from a…

Hulu once wrote about how, by offering a higher cost plan without ads, they removed a lot of the complaints about their service

I've always wondered if FB offered a similar option -- $5 or $10 a month to opt out of all adds and tracking -- if a lot of the complaints about their service would also disappear.

Re: Telegram is booming but needs advertisers and $700M soon

#60

Post by perardi »

I quite like Telegram, because I am apparently an old man at the age of 37, and I greatly prefer typing on my real physical keyboard, and not on my phone.

Telegram’s desktop client for Mac is great—it’s fast, it has feature parity with mobile clients, and it works. Messages get delivered and stay in sync, and I don’t need to somehow link my phone to my main machine via QR code to act as a gateway.

And if they introduced ads, with an option to pay a subscription to remove them? Here’s my…well, it’s Telegram, so here’s my cryptocurrency, I guess…but here’s my money.

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