Starting today 1st of March, Telegram is set to provide an opportunity for channel owners to receive financial rewards from their work. The CEO and Founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, made this announcement via his Telegram channel on Wednesday, February 28, 2024.

Telegram currently generates more than 800 million active monthly users and 1 trillion monthly views on broadcast channels. Currently, only 10% of these views are monetized with Telegram ads, a tool that executes marketing using privacy best practices.

Advertisers in over 100 countries will now start receiving 50% of the revenue Telegram generates from displaying ads in their channels. Ad payments and creators’ withdrawal will be paid in Toncoin through the TON blockchain. This approach is to ensure that ad payments and withdrawals are secure and fast.

The ad sharing move, which is already at play in other dominant social platforms like X and YouTube, will increase the use case of Toncoin, creating a virtuous cycle that allows content creators to cash out their Toncoins and re-invest them into the ecosystem in case they want to upgrade or promote their channels.

A follow up issue

After the announcement by Durov, some stakeholders raised concern that the new ad sharing development may result in Telegram holding an “unhealthy share of Toncoin”. This is because the payment for ads is scheduled to be received exclusively in Toncoin, and a humongous accumulation by Telegram can undermine TON blockchain’s decentralized standpoint.

To solve this, the social networking platform has resolved to keep Telegram’s share of TON at approximately 10%, selling excess TON holdings to long-term investors at a discount. This on-ramp to potential investors will lock up free-floating TON, stabilize the ecosystem and suppress price volatility. To be eligible for this arrangement, the potential investors will agree to a 1-4 years lockup and vesting plan.

Developments on the Telegram platform

A day after the announcement, Durov posted a giveaway offer to his over 2 million channel subscribers, promising 10,000 of them 3 months premium Telegram subscriptions. The winners, who were selected randomly by Telegram, were sent gift links in their DMs to unlock the free Telegram premium upgrade.

As revealed by Durov, the surge of new subscribers gained through the giveaway programme upgraded his channel to a Level 9 status. This tiering system hopes to bring higher engagements and financial sustainability to Telegram channels as the ad sharing programme kickstarts today.