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Comment by Thoeu388 | Hacker News Reader

Telegram is one social network that has a huge potential for growth today. It is a dominant platform for War reporting from both sides. And it is not compromised by history of censorship, and CIA connections, like other social networks.

We will probably see it growing in US, as we get closer to elections, and censorship tightens!

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Sure - but where's the revenue come from?

How much revenue do they need to generate for $250M investment? Paid version with extra features, $40M per year, and they will do fine.

> How much revenue do they need to generate for $250M investment

$30 to 40 million for interest on this issue.

Telegram sold $1bn of bonds in March 2021, when rates were 25 bps, with a 7% coupon [1]. Rates are now 5.25%. Their new bonds should thus yield 12%+.

That implies a total annual interest bill over $100 million, with a refinancing in 2026 on $1bn. Not ideal.

[1] https://bondblox.com/news/messaging-app-telegram-sells-bonds...

They have Telegram Premium, and ads for public channels, so there are revenue streams.

the revenue comes from the future acquirer of the company paying out to the current shareholders. I don't really believe consumers of telegram are willing to pay for it. It's in the same boat financially as twitter - but got better PR atm.

Chinese chat apps have monetised really well through e-commerce. Admittedly this success hasn't be achieved by WhatsApp etc, so it not trivial to replicate.

I don’t know what you’re implying exactly but Telegram does collaborate with local laws in countries they operate, and that’s counting takedowns and criminal investigations when illegal content is being shared, as every business entity should do.

Telegram is based in UAE, a country famous for Totok, a social network designed to spy on you.

The UAE is an absolute monarchy, and the law is a little more openly a tool if the state than in the west. A company with legal challenges exists there because the state wants it to.

The UAE looks unaligned but in a real way it is part of a Chinese Russian axis when it comes to this sort of thing. For example totok was based on Chinese spyware.

For those of us who don't share truly sensitive information, I'm sure it's fine, but Ukrainian war reporters probably shouldn't have it installed.

Would it shock you to learn that Telegram is a major source of news for the ongoing Ukraine/Russia conflict?

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/17868

It is compromised by Russian connections though

...didn't the founder get ousted out of VK (which he also founded) for not playing ball with Russian intelligence?

Or did I get that wrong?

Durov brothers left Russia few years ago; Pavel seems to be moving around while Nikolai stays in Saint Kitts and Nevis.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)#Developmen...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocking_of_Telegram_in_Russia

I think they’re playing ball, otherwise Telegram would have been declared a “foreign agent” like any other free press

That’s pure conspiracy thinking. Their service has been more or less blocked countrywide in Russia multiple times in the past, without too much success. Pavlov Durov has been publicly anti Putin since 2014 and exiled himself following euromaiden. Telegram has never been a Russian company, it was Berlin based, and is now in Dubai.

All of this has been public information since years, there isn’t any proof of anything malevolent happening with the service.

Mostly it was a spectacle for outsiders. Otherwise how its possible to explain that Durov continue to doing business and operate in Russia after?

IMHO - it would not be possible for him to leave russia alive without getting some tradeoff with Russian intelligence

Any proof?

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