The Telegram team has released an update enabling channel owners on the messaging platform to receive 50% of their advertising revenue in the cryptocurrency Toncoin (TON).
“We chose The Open Network blockchain because it offers low fees, high speed, and holds the record for the number of transactions it can process per second,” the announcement stated.
Channels with more than 1,000 subscribers are eligible for monetization. Funds will be withdrawn via the Fragment exchange without fees.
In addition to withdrawals, authors can reinvest the received coins into their own advertising or other Telegram features such as gifts and collectible names.
A second significant update is the ability to purchase targeting with TON:
“Now anyone can promote their bot or channel with a budget of just a few TON. When creating an ad on Telegram, you select specific channels where it will appear, giving you full control over the context.”
The company clarified that displayed marketing materials are not based on user data but depend solely on the channel where they appear.
Pavel Durov announced the content creator payment feature at the end of February. He noted that channels generate 1 trillion views monthly, but only 10% are monetized using the Telegram Ads tool.
TON reacted modestly to the news, gaining 1.6% over the day. At the time of writing, the coin is trading at $5.24.
Earlier reports indicated that Telegram is preparing for a potential IPO.
Back in February, Durov proposed a solution to preserve TON’s decentralization. The Telegram team will be limited to owning 10% of the total token issuance, and advertising in the messenger will be sold for digital assets.