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Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

wired.co.uk

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Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#21

Post by avalaunch »

benihana wrote: post #11

> Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral I completely agree. In this ideal situation, who pays for it? The article seems to have left this small detail out. How do you plan on getting this service to work without someone footing the bill?

It wasn't left out. You must have missed it.

Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram platform."

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#22

Post by unicornporn »

scosman wrote: post #10
alexwebb2 wrote: post #3

This read like an ad for Telegram.

Yeah, but everything's true. Encrypted by default, huge bounty for security researches, fast, great cross platform apps.

> Encrypted by default

However, it does not use the end to end encryption "by default".

Relevant: https://www.haystacksoftware.com/blog/2014/10/its-not-about-...

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#23

Post by learnstats2 »

benihana wrote: post #11

> Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral I completely agree. In this ideal situation, who pays for it? The article seems to have left this small detail out. How do you plan on getting this service to work without someone footing the bill?

The marginal cost of messaging is low enough that phone companies are happy to offer you an incredibly low cost per formerly-private communication (landline or mobile).

while the marginal cost of e-mail is so low that we get tonnes of spam.

Who needs to pay anything more? We already pay for the infrastructure.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#24

Post by textrmessenger »

harigov wrote: post #20
textrmessenger wrote: post #16

I think the key thing here is that Durov has the money from selling stock in his previous company (12% w/valuation of 3-4 billion) which means he can afford to pay to support the app in the meantime without any external financial help. I do think there are different ways to monetize messaging outside of pushing advertisements into people's face or selling information and third-party paid apps are a good option. In th…

You can always say that the messaging app itself isn't making money but the underlying technology is.

I think that is a good point. For start-ups who are interested in making messaging services, I wonder what Durov's recommendation would be as far as financials go. One has to be able to support the team they are working with and there are few people out there who can take the route Durov has due to his financial freedom.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#25

Post by caoilte »

textrmessenger wrote: post #16

I think the key thing here is that Durov has the money from selling stock in his previous company (12% w/valuation of 3-4 billion) which means he can afford to pay to support the app in the meantime without any external financial help. I do think there are different ways to monetize messaging outside of pushing advertisements into people's face or selling information and third-party paid apps are a good option. In th…

Nobody sets out to do evil but until he creates an ownership structure which prevents himself from cashing in once he's won everyone's trust this is just an underdog doing whatever it takes to attract customers.

To be succinct, one day he will sell out and the buyers will have every incentive to make money out of their users.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#26

Post by learnstats2 »

benihana wrote: post #13
learnstats2 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who pays for e-mail?

With my personal email - google. They handle the costs of storage and transport and in exchange they show me ads and collect high level data. With my work email - my company. They pay to keep the email secure and contextual and in exchange I keep it mostly related to work.

The cost of storing and transporting e-mail is potentially so low that I would claim you are overpaying Google.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#27

Post by harigov »

benihana wrote: post #11

> Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral I completely agree. In this ideal situation, who pays for it? The article seems to have left this small detail out. How do you plan on getting this service to work without someone footing the bill?

Messaging is important because it provides a person-to-person communication platform for arbitrary data. It blends in the rich interaction capabilities offered by internet with more personalized and free-form interaction offered by telephones or personal visits. Sending text messages to each other is only the first step. One can perform any kind of communication on top of messaging with proper apps. You can charge for these value added services and generate reasonable revenue.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#28

Post by andyidsinga »

wmeredith wrote: post #2

This raises the obvious question, then who is going to pay for them?

users could certainly pay ..but through a donation model similar to public radio or maybe Wikipedia. there's a carefull line to walk if 'sponsors' come on board but it's possible.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#29

Post by textrmessenger »

caoilte wrote: post #25
textrmessenger wrote: post #16

I think the key thing here is that Durov has the money from selling stock in his previous company (12% w/valuation of 3-4 billion) which means he can afford to pay to support the app in the meantime without any external financial help. I do think there are different ways to monetize messaging outside of pushing advertisements into people's face or selling information and third-party paid apps are a good option. In th…

Nobody sets out to do evil but until he creates an ownership structure which prevents himself from cashing in once he's won everyone's trust this is just an underdog doing whatever it takes to attract customers. To be succinct, one day he will sell out and the buyers will have every incentive to make money out of their users.

I agree with everything you said and I think protecting users versus monetizing is a fine line that every field has to work with.

Re: Messaging apps shouldn't make money – Pavel Durov and Telegram

#30

Post by harigov »

textrmessenger wrote: post #24
harigov wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always say that the messaging app itself isn't making money but the underlying technology is.

I think that is a good point. For start-ups who are interested in making messaging services, I wonder what Durov's recommendation would be as far as financials go. One has to be able to support the team they are working with and there are few people out there who can take the route Durov has due to his financial freedom.

In certain way, cost of doing business has reduced because of cloud service providers. However, network effects and the scale requirements still add up and make it hard for startup's to work on their long term vision. It would be nice if computation was similar to electricity. That way, the onus of paying for the services lies on the end users - the more you use, the more you pay. It is more straightforward and startups can sustain paying themselves for few years without having to worry about paying for computation, storage and network.
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