Telegram to add ads, with paid subscriptions to remove them
Telegram has mulled charging users for the service late last year, and it seems that it will finally be implemented. CEO Pavel Durov has made the announcement that there will be sponsored messages to allow the messaging service to be a “break-even project”. Users who do not wish to see ads can pay a subscription to hide them away.
Telegram ads, but it probably doesn’t matter to you and me
Pricing has yet to be confirmed, although I do believe that most users won’t really need to pay the subscription. The sponsored messages will only appear in large channels with over 1000 members, which are the most costly for Telegram to support. The list of chats, personal conversations and groups won’t have ads, which is probably what most people are using the app for.
Users who are particularly against seeing official ads can disable them with an “inexpensive subscription”, while channel administrators can also disable official ads in their channels, with Telegram calculating the “economic conditions” of offering this option.
Advertisers can opt to place “invisible” ads in channels too, which will result in no ads in that channel, provided that the cost is sufficient. I believe this is done by buying ads without any content, resulting in them not being displayed. Speaking of which, the ads are supposed to be no more than 160 characters and are text-only without images or links, so they will be pretty unobtrusive.
Last but not least, Telegram reassures users that personal data will not be used to display ads, and that user privacy is paramount for Telegram.
Pokdepinion: Well, I don’t exactly hang out in the huge channels on Telegram, so I guess I am fine?
Leave a Response