myth or reality?

Telegram is the most hype modern messenger. It is not without reason that in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Telegram creator Pavel Durov predicted that it would soon reach 1 billion active users and confirmed that the messenger has already overtaken his previous brainchild, VKontakte, in daily audience.

Record growth, constant shipment of new features, progress towards blockchain and cryptocurrencies – Telegram achieves all this with a team of less than 40 specialists. For most Russians (in Russia and abroad), Telegram is a source of news, a work tool, and a way to communicate with friends and family. It seems that turn off the messenger for us, and life will stop.

But how much of Telegram’s success is of real benefit to customers, and how much of it is hype? Will life really continue without Telegram? Yuri Fedorchuk, CPO Monetization at FunCorp, will tell us about this.

Why Telegram is really cool

In the article we will talk about the “bloat” of the messenger and look at the “self-excitation” effect, as in electromechanics: the more hype news Telegram releases, the more actively the messenger is discussed – and the more popular and advanced it seems.

Speed

The speed of the application and the speed of UX/UI have always been one of the main advantages of the messenger. First of all, the team has greatly optimized the messaging protocol, which allows content to be delivered to users quickly and securely.

Media in the telegram is cached – this also speeds up the work. For example, if you send a video to one user first and then to another, the other user will receive it almost instantly from the CDN.

CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a geographically distributed network infrastructure that optimizes the delivery and distribution of content to end users on the Internet.

The messenger has a really fast and convenient UX. In my opinion, Telegram is designed simply as a standard. It seems that the small team and lack of corporate culture of blurring responsibilities helps make the application truly user-friendly.

All-In-One

Telegram is a real control panel for the information agenda. Work and personal chats, news channels, groups – all this exists in one information field without an algorithmic feed. It’s not surprising that you become addicted to the messenger, because keeping your finger on the pulse of everything important is a special type of addiction.

Because everything important exists in one place, there is no delay in receiving important information. No need to go to Slack, and then to the web for news, and then to the work tracker. Everything is already here. And thanks to a separate folder system, everything can be customized.

Boost content makers

Today, for a professional not to have his own channel (read: blog) is practically bad manners. And because of the linear feed, subscribers grow well, and readability rises (on average to 40–50% of reads from the number of subscribers).

Business features

Telegram has a whole list of functionsoriented towards entrepreneurs:

• quick responses (in fact, automation of support or sales);

• opening hours and maps for offline;

• chatbots;

• tags for chats.

Applications

In Telegram, you can create mini-applications and games that work equally well on both desktop and phone. Even large companies like Samokat provide gamification for customers in the app. Fortunately, it is not difficult to get an audience both “inside” and “outside”.

Telegram development strategy

Telegram has found its superpower (and has not yet lost it): to build an ecosystem of products around work and personal communication, while remaining a fast messenger

In fact, Telegram is becoming a super-app, but at the same time it is not “sucking in” traditional government or financial services, but creating its own. A striking example is TON.

In 2019, Pavel Durov presented his blockchain platform – TON Network and the Gram cryptocurrency. According to Durov, TON was supposed to become a platform for the development of decentralized applications and even websites.

And TON should also help the messenger make money, because since 2013 Telegram has been financed only from the personal funds of the creators, and server maintenance cost them hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

It is worth noting that the crypto IPO was unsuccessful due to the opposition of American regulators.

In 2019, Durov denied continuing the development of TON, but in 2024 the platform is more alive than ever. For TON you can buy and sell a username, as well as run advertising. In addition, in 2024, Telegram began sharing a share of advertising revenue in channels with channel authors, also in TON.

Due to the fact that Telegram is becoming a “digital state”, TON will most likely become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, without “diving” into fiat money. You can receive, sell, and exchange TON directly in the messenger.

Fiat money is money not backed by gold and other precious metals, the nominal value of which is established and guaranteed by the state.

In my opinion, Telegram is having a huge impact on the world of instant messengers, accelerating the transition to Layer 2.

Challenges and risks

In my opinion, Telegram may face challenges in the near future that could hamper its stellar growth.

Locks

The messenger risks facing blocking not only in Russia, but also in the USA and the EU – attempts to limit the work of Telegram regularly appear in the news (for example, in Spain). The larger the number of active users of the messenger, the higher the likelihood of sporadic blocking.

TON restrictions

The American regulator SEC has already tried to equate the internal cryptocurrency Telegram with ordinary shares. New restrictions are possible, especially at the intersection of blockchain and fiat withdrawal gateways. We all understand that cryptocurrency can be used to buy not only legal goods.

Growing pains

Telegram will soon exceed 1 billion active users and take 4th–5th place in the global rankings (probably overtaking Snapchat). However, it will be difficult to grow further at this rate – the messenger will have to fight for the entrenched and regulated EU market.

Instead of a conclusion

Obviously, the “bloat” of Telegram has a basis, and the audience will only continue to grow and conquer new markets. Durov’s team is really building its own super-app, which will cover all the needs of people, from communication, financial institutions, awareness, and ending with ordering food at home.

Will the messenger be able to grow further and achieve operating profitability? Or will they try to strangle him on takeoff or buy him? Let's see! In any case, we have an interesting battle ahead of us.