Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

351–360 of 436 posts

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#351

Post by lolinder »

mquander wrote: post #342
Suppafly wrote: post #171

If this is something their users actually wanted, they'd be paying xAI, not the other way around.

That's just not true. If Telegram wanted it a small amount, and xAI wanted it a large amount, it would be normal for Telegram to negotiate to get paid for doing it.

This isn't quite the framing I'd use—the key thing that would make it make sense for the deal to go this way is if there's competition bidding for the slot. Say OpenAI also wants in and was willing to pay for it. Absent competition for the slot and assuming that Telegram actually wanted the deal, we'd expect to see at most a no-cost exchange.

There's no reason for Grok to pay this much for the deal unless either Telegram sees it as a net negative that needs reimbursement or they're competing with other bids.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#352

Post by fragmede »

dcchambers wrote: post #350

The $300M "in cash and xAI equity" could turn out to not be that much money, depending on what percentage of that was equity. xAI recently raised at an $80B valuation and it's highly debatable if it's actually worth that...and who knows if you'd ever actually have a liquidation event.

How do you want to define liquidation event? SpaceX employees are getting rich despite no IPO in sight.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#353

Post by dcchambers »

fragmede wrote: post #352
dcchambers wrote: post #350

The $300M "in cash and xAI equity" could turn out to not be that much money, depending on what percentage of that was equity. xAI recently raised at an $80B valuation and it's highly debatable if it's actually worth that...and who knows if you'd ever actually have a liquidation event.

How do you want to define liquidation event? SpaceX employees are getting rich despite no IPO in sight.

Fair enough. I'm not at all familiar with SpaceX's comp but I assume they do private liquidity events/stock sales for their employees. Who knows if X/xAI will do something similar, and if outside equity holders are subject to those same rules. Far above my pay grade to figure that out.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#354

Post by thunderfork »

distances wrote: post #323
drdaeman wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sort of used to be, although not exactly as a messenger - it was never good for one-to-one private conversations, but as a social network with channels and groups. However, for the last couple years enshittification is in progress - it's not at Microsoft Teams levels yet, but they're really trying to get there, shoving more and more ads (third- and first-party both) into users' faces with increasing frequency.

What ads is Telegram showing? I can't think of any, except a peristent birthday reminder. I also agree with the sibling comment that Telegram is sadly the best chat app I've used not only for group chats but also for 1-to-1 chats. Edit: there are paid emojis or stickers too, now that I think about it.

[dead]

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#355

Post by bag_boy »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #247
Suppafly wrote: post #171

If this is something their users actually wanted, they'd be paying xAI, not the other way around.

I thought that. Then, I remembered PayPal straight up paying people to use their platform. We saw how that worked out. So, the question is whether they should pay to generate demand in a new market. Then, who to pay and how much? I'll also note that OpenAI took the market by offering an expensive service for free (ChatGPT). Then, they offered a monthly plan that may or may not have been profitable. One could argue th…

How do you PayPal straight up paying people to use their platform worked out?

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#357

Post by piyuv »

Gothmog69 wrote: post #345
Suppafly wrote: post #171

If this is something their users actually wanted, they'd be paying xAI, not the other way around.

Google pays Apple some 20 billion a year for search primacy on iphones

That shows that their trust in users selecting google as primary if given the option when setting up a new device is not high. Otherwise they’d negotiate it down.

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#359

Post by wtk »

Suppafly wrote: post #172
lawrencejgd wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change that in Settings → Privacy and security → Invitations → Select My contacts

>You can change that in Settings → Privacy and security → Invitations → Select My contacts Bizarre that that's not the default and that it's actually an option at all.

driving interaction count > your peace

Re: xAI to pay telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app

#360

Post by selcuka »

Suppafly wrote: post #171

If this is something their users actually wanted, they'd be paying xAI, not the other way around.

> If this is something their users actually wanted

Users wouldn't specifically ask for Grok, but they might like to have access to an AI assistant. When you are competing against OpenAI etc. it makes sense to incentivise big, PR generating customers such as Telegram.

Post reply on HN