Social media platform, Telegram, has announced plans to launch its ad platform in March 2024 to allow channel owners to receive financial rewards.
Telegram CEO and founder, Pavel Durov, disclosed this on Wednesday via his Telegram channel. According to Durov, the company will pay out rewards using toncoin on the TON blockchain.
Channel owners will start receiving 50% of all revenue that the company makes from displaying ads in their channels.
Telegram channels allow users to broadcast public messages to large audiences. Durov said that while broadcast channels on Telegram generate one trillion views every month, only 10% of these views are monetized with Telegram Ads, its promotion tool.
What the Telegram CEO is saying
Announcing the deal, Durov in the Telegram post said:
- “Next month, channel owners on Telegram can start receiving financial rewards from their work.
- “Broadcast channels on Telegram generate 1 trillion views monthly. Currently, only 10% of these views are monetized with Telegram Ads — a promotion tool designed with privacy in mind.
- “In March, the Telegram Ad Platform will officially open to all advertisers in nearly a hundred new countries. Channel owners in these countries will start receiving 50% of any revenue that Telegram makes from displaying ads in their channels.
- “To ensure ad payments and withdrawals are fast and secure, we will exclusively use the TON blockchain. Similar to our approach with Telegram usernames on Fragment, we will sell ads and share revenue with channel owners in Toncoin.
- “This will create a virtuous circle, in which content creators will be able to either cash out their Toncoins — or reinvest them in promoting and upgrading their channels.”
What you should know
With this announcement, Telegram will be joining the likes of YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), both of which offer ad revenue sharing with users.
YouTube offers a 55% share of ad revenue to creators in the YouTube Partner Program, while X started offering revenue sharing to users in July 2023. Meta also has been testing a new payout model for its Ads on Reels monetization program.
Telegram has more than 800 million monthly active users around the world.