As per recent reports, the messaging platform has been developing sponsored messages that are currently in test mode. It was informed by the CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov informed that WhatsApp messages use the personal data of users even if they don’t display ads and the new feature from telegram won’t be like that. Moreover, the sponsored messages on Telegram will be available to users on large public channels that have more than 1000 subscribers and the messages will have a character limit of 160 words.
Sponsored Messages Will Not Use User Data
The Telegram CEO said that sponsored messages will be the same for all the users in a particular chat. He informed that these messages will be based on the content of the channel in which it is displayed and will not use any personal data from the users or analysis to display ads. He particularly emphasized the fact that there are no ads in private chats or group chats on Telegram. Durov said that telegram will never compromise with user data to target ads and they always work towards prioritizing and protecting user data. He also said that the telegram users will always be more “ad-free” than they will be on WhatsApp. He further added that the advertisers on telegram never get the private data of the users whereas WhatsApp has been sharing user data with advertisers for a while now even though they don’t display the ads themselves. He also added that the admins of the one-to-many channels on telegram have already been displaying ads in the normal messages and Telegram is looking forward to improving the ad system on the application. He said once the sponsored messages are completely rolled out on the app and the costs are covered, the revenue of the advertisements will be shared with the admins of the channels in which they are displayed as well. Previously the CEO has also announced that Telegram is working on a subscription system that will give users the option to opt-out of ads from the application. The pricing of the subscription service, however, wasn’t revealed but the CEO said that it would be inexpensive.
