Telegram's getting ads, and here's what to expect from them

Not the ads you know from Facebook or Google

Telegram has been on a high recently, from capitalizing on Facebook’s downtime and picking up around 70 million new users to reaching over a billion installs on Play Store. However, as the platform — and the expenses associated with it — continues to grow, it needs to start generating money to cover its ballooning traffic and server maintenance costs (having been running so far on investments from the founder’s pockets). Clearly, the company has been thinking the same, because CEO Pavel Dorov earlier announced that Telegram would start generating revenue. A year later, it has launched the Telegram Ad Platform, a program that will allow individuals and organizations to create and send sponsored messages.

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Worried about ads ruining Telegram? What can you expect from this change? Well for starters, Telegram says that the platform will only allow advertizers to display content on public channels with over 1000 subscribers, so you won’t be getting any intrusions in your public or private groups. The company also says that it won’t be compromising its position on privacy. Hence, no user data will be mined or analyzed to present ads. Instead, sponsored content will be displayed based on the main topic of the public channels in which it's shown, so everyone sees the same ads. In addition to its stance against direct targeting, the company clarifies that user information will not be collected, actions after clicking will not be analyzed, and ads will not be sent to external links.

If you’re a fan of Telegram, be it for its data privacy versus other mainstream social platforms or just simply because of the multitude of features it boasts, you can rest assured that you'll be able to keep enjoying those perks. Hopefully these ads lead to a more sustainable business model for the company, so the social platform shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

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