Instant messaging app Telegram is “approaching” 500 million users and plans to generate revenue starting next year to keep the business afloat, its founder Pavel Durov said on Wednesday.
Durov said he has personally bankrolled the seven-year-old business so far, but as the startup scales he is looking for ways to monetize the instant messaging service. “A project of our size needs at least a few hundred million dollars per year to keep going,” he said.
All existing features will remain free, said Durov, who is one of the biggest critics of Facebook -owned WhatsApp, adding that Telegram is committed to not introduce ads in private one-to-one chats or group chats because they are a “bad idea.”
Yes it always costs money to host any service, and the bigger it gets not only does it cost more but it also potentially has a lot more users to tap into. So at least Telegram is not in all the businesses Facebook is to sell our data so that is one plus. I don’t believe any business can be completely free for users, have no adverts or at least a big donor, when it gets very large. Something has to fund it.
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