Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the Telegram app, announced on Monday that the messaging service achieved a net profit for the first time in 2024, with revenues exceeding one billion dollars. The online messaging platform, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, claims to have 950 million users worldwide.
Telegram had operated without ads or paid services for a long time, but it adopted a monetization policy in 2021, primarily relying on paid subscriptions that offer exclusive features and the introduction of advertising. Durov reported a tripling of the number of subscribers to the app's paid version, Telegram Premium, surpassing "twelve million," along with an increase in ad revenue, leading to an annual revenue exceeding "one billion dollars."
He also mentioned over "500 million dollars" in cash reserves, not including its cryptocurrency assets. The year 2024 was marked by his detention and indictment in late August by two French judges for a series of offenses related to organized crime, with the judiciary accusing him of failing to act against the dissemination of criminal content on the messaging platform. Durov was released under strict judicial supervision, which included a bail of 5 million euros and a requirement to report to the police station twice a week, as well as a travel ban from France.
