Telegram is a popular messaging application with over 500 million active users. It provides various features like file sharing, VoIP calls, and end-to-end encryption. Telegram's business model focuses on user convenience rather than profit generation. It does not charge users or show ads. While Telegram raised funds through an ICO in 2018, it has not generated revenue as of 2020. The founders prioritize free messaging and aim to explore optional paid features if urgent funds are needed in the future.

1. Business Model of Telegram
Compiled By
Berhanemeskel Weldegerima
(BPharm, MSc.), Asst. Prof.
1st Year Student MA in Marketing Management at CBE, UOG
How does Telegram make money
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Social and Administrative Pharmacy Department
School of Pharmacy
College of Medicine and Health Sciences
University of Gondar
E-mail: aberhaneth@gmail.com,
Tele. +251-912024213/+251-993589469
Gondar, Ethiopia
August 19, 2021

2. Presentation outlines
1. About Telegram
2. Where does Telegram operate?
3. Key Features of Telegram
4. Target Audience of Telegram
5. Business Model of Telegram
6. What is unique about the Business Model of
Telegram
7. How does Telegram make money?
8. Conclusion
9. Reference
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3. 1. About Telegram
 The very popular open-source messaging application,
 Telegram provides various facilities to its customers
including
 file sharing,
 VoIP,
 end-to-end encryption on video calls,
 and many others.
 Telegram was founded in August 2013 by Nikolai Durov
and Pavel Durov.
 The company is headquartered in London, United
Kingdom, and in Dubai, UAE by operational means.
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4. 1. About Telegram
 In fact, Telegram is the highest preferred messaging
application in Uzbekistan and Iran.
 Today, Telegram has over 500 million active users but
by the time of 2022, the company aims to take the
users over one billion.
 As of 2020, Telegram reached around 540 million
downloads among which 500 million are from Android
devices.
 Telegram is an open-source application but its server
comes as closed source. More than 15 billion messages
are sent through Telegram every day.
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5. 2. Where does Telegram operate?
 Telegram provides its server distributed to five data
centers located in various regions, to minimize the data
load of the company.
 The operational centers are established in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates.
 Meanwhile, the legal center is established in London,
United Kingdom.
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6. 3. Key Features of Telegram
 Telegram offers tons of features to make messaging
convenient for users. Some of the features are-
 Lock Chat, where you can lock any of your chats with
a password.
 Self-destructing Media, where you can put a timer
on any of your media and it will be destroyed after
that specific time.
 Two-step verification, where you can protect your
account with two steps of verification from being
hacked.
 Delete sender's messages, where you can delete any
message or chat from both sides (receiver and
sender). 6

7. 4. Target Audience of Telegram
 Telegram offers dozens
of features and user
preferences.
 The messaging
application is specially
designed for people
above the age of 16
years, with no parental
controls overhead.
 It targets the youth with
many end-to-end
encrypted features.
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8. 5. Business Model of Telegram
 Telegram's business model is entirely based on users'
convenience and features.
 The company was founded in 2013 but it hasn't
generated much revenue.
 In 2018, through an Initial Coin Offering Telegram
raised more than $1.7 billion.
 But later in 2019, the SEC stopped this plan and
announced it unlawful.
 After this, the co-founder Durov kept the company up
with the money he earned from selling the VK stake he
owned.
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9. 5. Business Model of Telegram
 But lately, Telegram has experienced immense growth
because of this, the company monetized the service.
 In 2020, Durov announced on his public Telegram
channel stating that they will be monetizing Telegram's
services.
 Telegram would not be charging any cost from the
users, nor would show any ads in private or group
chats.
 That's why Telegram is looking forward to other
methods to gain enough revenue.
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10. 6. What is unique about the Business Model of Telegram
 Telegram runs on a very smooth business model and
the most unique thing about it is that Telegram wasn't
made to gain profit.
 The messaging application Telegram was founded
to make messaging handy for users with many
fascinating features.
 It has a whole bunch of features that make it absolutely
unique from the other applications.
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11. 6. What is unique about the Business Model of Telegram
These features are:
 Telegram offers the feature of editing after sending the
text. You can also delete them from both sides at your
convenience.
 You can access your messages anytime from any device
through the availability of cross-platform.
 Options of replying, hashtags, and mentioning to make
your chatting more fruitful.
 Feature to mute any group so that you don't get
unnecessary notifications.
 Feature to pin any message and that message will be
displayed at the top of the chat screen.
 Share any file with a maximum size of 1.5 GB and more.
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12. 7. How does Telegram make money?
 Telegram does not make any profit from its application
and services. As of 2020, there is zero revenue made.
 The founders believe in providing the facility of fast and
secure messaging absolutely free.
 Although the company does have backup plans in case
of urgent money.
 Telegram would look for non-essential paid options to
generate money.
 Telegram prioritizes its customers the most and
provides them with the best features for free.
 Telegram usually makes money from funding from its
founders.
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13. 8. Conclusion
 Through this, we got the clear image that Telegram
does not generate money, especially not from its users
and services.
 We discussed the business model of Telegram briefly
with the statistics.
 The founders believe in serving its users more than
generating billions of dollars.
 Telegram is a prominent application that has grown
immensely in the last few years.
 There's a lot to talk about when it comes to Telegram.
 For now, we outcast our best knowledge regarding its
business model.
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14. 9. Reference
• Business Model of Telegram | How does Telegram make money.
Pratyusha Srivastava Jul 25, 2021.
https://startuptalky.com/telegram-business-
model/#:~:text=%E2%80%8C%E2%80%8CTelegram's%20business
%20model%20is%20entirely%20based%20on%20users'%20conve
nience%20and%20features.&text=In%202020%2C%20Durov%20a
nnounced%20on,in%20private%20or%20group%20chats.
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