Telegram To Launch Sponsored Messages Globally: 5 Things You Should Know

Telegram on Friday announced it was working to launch Sponsored Messages in all regions, including India.

Telegram To Launch Sponsored Messages Globally/Getty

New Delhi: Encrypted messaging app Telegram on Friday announced it was working to launch Sponsored Messages in all regions, including India. Sponsored Messages is a tool that allows anyone to promote their channels and bots. This, however, is currently being tested and not available for the public right now.

According to Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, Sponsored Messages can't appear in users' chat lists, private chats or groups, and that user data will not be used or mined for targeted ads.

"Sponsored Messages are currently in test mode and are not available to everyone. Once they are fully launched and allow Telegram to cover its basic costs (such as equipment and data centers that are used by channel admins to deliver their content to our hundreds of millions of users), we plan to start sharing ad revenue with the admins of the channels where Sponsored Messages are displayed – because it is fair," Durov said in a statement.

As Telegram works towards launching the tool globally, here are five important things about it you must know:

1. Sponsored Messages on Telegram are shown only in large public one-to-many channels with more than 1000 members and are based solely on the topic of the public channels in which they are shown. 
2. Chats on Telegram will be ad-free -- Sponsored Messages can't appear in users' chat list, private chats or groups.
3. Telegram is fixing ads that already exist. Some admins of one-to-many channels on the platform post ads in the form of regular messages.
4. Telegram will share the revenue it earns with the admins of the channels where Sponsored Messages are shared.
5. Telegram will remain more ad-free than WhatsApp -- advertisers will never get the private data of users. Also, users will never see an ad on the platform.