Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov on Jan 9 posted that telegram have reached 5 million premium subs. Personally I think giveaways played a big role in this and I believe this would help telegram cover its costs even more. Which is good for us users
I’m surprised people pay for it myself. Don’t see the value over the free version…
They had 550 million users in 2022, 700 million in 2023…
And 5 million subscribers is less than a percent of users, but I guess they see the value of premium.
I’ve been subscribed to premium for some time now. The things it would be difficult to give up are:
- voice messages transcription
- 4 gb files upload
- real-time translations
- ability to react to messages using custom emojis
- ability to react with up to 3 emojis to a message
- maybe, being able to create more than 10 folders
These features might seem some niche features you use once in a while, but I actually use them very very often
Premium is 2 €/month in my country, and considering how much I use Telegram (all my contacts and circles use it) and the features I mentioned above, I think it’s worth it
Here it’s double that, 4 euros per month. I would pay 2 euros too because then it’s a reasonable cost just for the emois.
I wonder why there’s such a price difference. You’re using Euros, so it’s not due to local currency valuations. It’s only $30 per year in the USA, or $2.50 per month. Your cost is almost double!
I have to mention that I’ve downloaded the app from the website - premium costs more if you download the app from the store. In Italy, the pricing is 3.66 €/month if you pay monthly, or 2.24 €/month if you pay annually
My wife paid the sub because she wanted the animated reactions. She was disappointed with how small they are after she paid, but whatever. It’s only $30 per year.
damn, that was fast. I like the ways he finds to monetize his app.
I like the fact that ALL of the features are truly optional. I am not obliged to pay at all without feeling unwhole as a user.
Yes, that was fast, but this is partly because of the introduction of channel giveaways a few months ago: channel owners can gift premium subscriptions to their subscribers, which will be randomly selected by Telegram (you don’t need to opt-in). The channel will then be awarded the giveaway winners’ boosts, that will let it unlock some additional features
That means that after some months, the giveaways winners will have to decide whether to renew their premium subscription or not (which was gifted to them: they might not be as interested in Telegram’s premium features as paid users that decided to subscribe on their own). The current number of subscribers might be a spike caused by the novelty of giveaways. It’s unlikely that the trend of gifting premium subscriptions will continue to generate this much revenue, but we will see. For sure this is a very convenient moment to decide to release some numbers on premium subscriptions ;)
