Telegram founder Pavel Durov mentioned that the corporate expects to hit profitability subsequent yr with eyes on going public sooner or later.
The chat app, which crossed 900 million customers, is making “hundreds of millions of dollars” by adverts and subscriptions, Durov informed the Monetary Occasions in an interview. He talked about that whereas international buyers have supplied the corporate cash at a greater than $30 billion valuation, Telegram goals to go public sooner or later.
“The main reason why we started to monetize is because we wanted to remain independent. Generally speaking, we see value in [an IPO] as a means to democratize access to Telegram’s value,” he informed FT.
Whereas Telegram shouldn’t be trying to increase a mega spherical, the corporate is open to funding in alternate for smaller fairness.
Telegram launched a Premium subscription two years in the past and inside months crossed the mark of 1 million paid customers. The corporate additionally presents advert options for one-to-many channels and plans to launch advert income sharing with channel homeowners this month. Durov informed FT that advert options at present are restricted to sure geographies and the corporate mandates companies to spend between €1mn and €10mn. Telegram is trying to develop advert choices globally this yr and likewise make room for small ticket spenders.
Earlier this month, the corporate introduced that non-public customers can convert their accounts to enterprise accounts by paying a subscription price.
Aside from these options, Telegram has additionally experimented with blockchain-based initiatives by the TON basis. In December 2022, the corporate auctioned premium usernames utilizing TON Blockchain to let folks use the app with none SIM. In September 2023, Telegram added a self-custodial crypto pockets globally besides within the U.S.
Durov has mentioned up to now that Telegram desires to launch AI-powered chatbots for customer support for enterprise customers. The corporate additionally plans to spend money on AI to resolve moderation points that usually plague the platform.