Telegram channels are eligible for 50% of ad revenue, but there’s a catch.
Instant messaging platform Telegram Messenger will share half of its worldwide advertising revenue with public channel owners if they meet certain conditions.
On March 31, Telegram introduced a reward system that allows top subscribers to earn 50% of the revenue from ads on their channels in TonCoin (TON), the project's parent.
The catch? Official channels must have at least 1,000 subscribers to qualify.
The plan was first announced in February 2024 when Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov announced the Telegram ad platform to open up revenue streams for channel owners.
Since the announcement, the price of a ton has increased by 111% – from $2.51 on February 29 to $5.30 on April 1, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
According to the company, Telegram channels generate more than one trillion views every month, and owners can withdraw their share of the ad revenue free of charge.
It is the third largest messenger app by monthly downloads after WhatsApp and Snapchat, according to Statista.
To support the initiative, Telegram has added Toncoin as a payment method for buying ads on the platform. But Telegram only shows ads on Telegram channels, depending on the type of content that channel shares.
Before the Telegram channel became an official source of income, they were making money by selling paid posts to their followers, asking for payment to join private channels, and more.
Related: TON Blockchain Launches $115M Community Incentive Program
In an exclusive Cointelegraph interview on March 29, Justin Yun, director of investments at Ton Foundation, said on Telegram that blockchain-based mini-decentralized applications (DApps), also known as mini-apps, could be a “Trojan horse”. Mass blockchain adoption.
It is our thesis to bring more users to blockchain without even needing to educate them about blockchain. It's the Trojan horse way: Look, you're allowing all these user-friendly DApps, and we don't even call them DApps. […] They only use Telegram mini apps in their channels.
Hyun plans to bring 500 million people on-chain by 2028 using simple initial use cases where users are unaware of basic blockchain interactions.
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