> Until recently, Telegram operated without a clear monetisation strategy, funded largely by Pavel Durov’s personal fortune
Well, that is an extraordinary business model indeed
justindownes · 3h ago
Typically today’s tech unicorns would employ thousands of staff across sprawling corporate campuses in order to power a global comms juggernaut, however one messaging platform stands in stark contrast. Telegram, the encrypted messaging service founded by the Durov brothers, has achieved what many consider impossible: a $30 billion valuation with just 30 employees and no human resources department. This remarkable efficiency ratio—$1 billion per employee—has made the Dubai-based company one of the most fascinating case studies in contemporary business.
darthrupert · 3h ago
> the encrypted messaging service
Haphazard reporting work or malicious lying from Telegram's side?
Tepix · 2h ago
Exactly. I‘ve never had a chat on Telegram with E2EE that wasn‘t originated by myself.
My guess is less than 1% of Telegram is E2EEd. Probably less than 0.1% even. After all, they don‘t offer E2EE for group chats at all.
In these things, it seems quite similar to early WhatsApp.
0x_rs · 29m ago
>Founded on Principles of Freedom and Privacy
If you pay, maybe. Telegram locks multiple privacy and security features behind paywalls, most notably being able to stop receiving the endless spam plaguing the platform with the message restriction to only your contacts and other "premium" users. That's without getting into the whole Fragment filth, advertisement all over, forced in channels and barely distinguishable, and so on.
>Telegram [is] first focused on building a loyal user base through an uncompromising product experience
Yeah, between statements like these and OP's submission history everything being claimed can be safely dismissed. Telegram is rushing to monetize in every aspect possible that may earn them more revenue, and it's not alone in that, Discord is on a similar trajectory (but not as bad, yet).
DonsDiscountGas · 1h ago
While there is some interesting material here it's clearly a fluff piece. I'm sure Dubai was chosen so they wouldn't need moderation. And stuff like accounting and legal can be outsourced (and I'm sure it is) which just makes the employee count a bit misleading.
Gualdrapo · 2h ago
Yet they decide to spend nothing on moderation. Orphaned groups still have everything from drug selling, sexual services, counterfeiting money and even CP - yet I can't change the location of my local group because someone someday told their "moderation" service the neighborhood group allegedly is not related to the neighborhood.
Telegram as a messaging service is cool, and the bots thing is great - but otherwise they seem to be really focused on money grabbing.
chvid · 2h ago
I think they are just ahead of the curve - Twitter and Facebook are also abandoning human moderation possibly in favor of some algorithmic solution.
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram...
Well, that is an extraordinary business model indeed
Haphazard reporting work or malicious lying from Telegram's side?
If you pay, maybe. Telegram locks multiple privacy and security features behind paywalls, most notably being able to stop receiving the endless spam plaguing the platform with the message restriction to only your contacts and other "premium" users. That's without getting into the whole Fragment filth, advertisement all over, forced in channels and barely distinguishable, and so on.
>Telegram [is] first focused on building a loyal user base through an uncompromising product experience
Yeah, between statements like these and OP's submission history everything being claimed can be safely dismissed. Telegram is rushing to monetize in every aspect possible that may earn them more revenue, and it's not alone in that, Discord is on a similar trajectory (but not as bad, yet).
Telegram as a messaging service is cool, and the bots thing is great - but otherwise they seem to be really focused on money grabbing.