Soon the end of absolute free on Telegram? The « Telegram Beta » channel, which specializes in exploring trial versions of online messaging, unveiled a video on Sunday May 1 showing new stickers, emojis and reactions, intended to be reserved for future users. premium of the app. These features are therefore already available on the latest trial version of the application, signs of an upcoming arrival. On the other hand, no information on the prices, the release date, and the geographical areas targeted by Telegram, which did not respond to requests from Challenges. Behind this choice hides the platform’s ambition to become profitable. Stop taking risks.
⭐️ The first appearance of Telegram Premium subscription
• First features: Unlock additional reactions and premium stickers
• Demo on the Test Server with Telegram Beta iOS.@Telegram #beta #iOS v8.7.2https://t.co/SdbtGFRB7C pic.twitter.com/oV40TKbilS— Telegram Beta News (@TelegramBeta) May 1, 2022
Marianne Lumeau, economist at the University of Angers explains: « Until then, the main model of Telegram, which was not initially created to make a profit, was sponsorship. The platform was based on the use of the funds of Pavel Durov, the co-founder. But there is now a need for more means, the number of users increasing for two years », boosted by the leak of certain users of Whatsapp and Twitter. Between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, the number of downloads of the application increased by 61%, and the stage of one billion downloads was reached at the end of summer 2021. A sufficient plateau to start a monetization. “Servers now cost several hundred millions of euros to Telegram. The question for the company is to find them », explains Thomas Houy, lecturer in management at Telecom Paris. Once successfully seeded, Telegram must find sources of income.
« All currently free features will remain free »
By the end of 2020, encrypted online messaging had announced, in the mouth of its co-founder Pavel Dourov, that it was working on « non-intrusive » advertising -since implementation-, and on a paid formula. « Telegram will start generating revenue from next year », he explained, while guaranteeing: « All currently free features will remain free ». Monetization was necessary, according to Pavel Dourov: he announced that he did not want to sell Telegram and its pool of users, as happened to Whatsapp for example. As for the collection of data as a source of remuneration, it is made impossible by the desire for encryption and security displayed by the platform.
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« Telegram is a bit in the middle of the watch, explains Thomas Houy. They are not completely secure, like Signal. But their protection strategy prevents them from monetizing the data. » Making the entire platform pay would run the risk, according to the researcher, of losing users, the origins of its value. As for the attempt to create a cryptocurrency, it ended in bitter failure and was abandoned in 2020.
The risks of a « gadget » subscription
But will subscriber-only emojis and stickers be enough to attract new users and make Telegram profitable? « If it’s just gimmicky, it won’t be so viable, » warns Asma Mhalla, professor at Sciences Po Paris in geopolitics of the digital economy. Anthony Poncier, expert in business model Digital joins her, but nuance: « On video game platforms, players pay to buy accessories ». But these are one-time purchases, not a subscription, he adds. For him, it is therefore very likely that before launching his formula premium, Telegram makes other promises to its future subscribers. Pavel Dourov notably announced in 2021 the total absence of advertising on these accounts.
Because the subscription system premium has proven itself, continues Anthony Poncier: « It’s a model that is emerging more and more. YouTube notably offers a service premium which is paying. » Marianne Lumeau agrees: « For the recorded music market, subscriptions premium bring in much more than advertising ». On the other hand, Whatsapp, direct competitor of Telegram, has never passed the milestone of subscription premium.
« This amounts to degrading the free offer »
A detail challenges Thomas Houy within the subscription premium Telegram. The broadcast video suggests, as the Android Police site points out, that a free user who would receive, from a subscriber premium a paid emoji, couldn’t see it. « It amounts to degrading the free offer, it raises a huge question. » The announcement of emojis reserved for subscribers premium received 900 unfavorable reactions (thumbs down) against only 250 favorable reactions (thumbs up) on the “TikTok Beta” channel. Difficult to know how, for the moment, Telegram intends to make its subscription attractive and profitable. premium.
Jean-Pierre Benghozi, research director at the CNRS and professor at the Ecole polytechnique, underlines the extreme volatility of the economic models of online platforms: « While Telegram is moving towards more paid content, Netflix is looking to move towards a decrease prices, by reintegrating advertising. Today’s business models are much less stable than they could be twenty years ago. »
To underline this evolution, Jean-Pierre Benghozi describes, by way of metaphor, a scene from the book Alice through the looking glass by Lewis Caroll: a character, the red queen, runs to stay in place. Indeed, the ground scrolls under his feet like a treadmill. « In economics, it’s a bit the same thing. Some adopt the model of the red queen: to maintain themselves, they are constantly changing ». Free, cryptocurrency project, fundraising of one billion euros in 2021, advertising, emojis reserved for subscribers: Telegram would be, for the researcher, a perfect illustration of this race specific to business model digital flexibility.
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