As Telegram approaches 500 million active users, many of you are asking the question – who is going to pay to support this growth? After all, more users mean more expenses for traffic and servers. A project of our size needs at least a few hundred million dollars per year to keep going. 

For most of Telegram’s history, I paid for the expenses of the company from my personal savings. However, with its current growth Telegram is on track to reach billions of users and to require appropriate funding. When a tech project reaches this scale, typically there are two options – start earning money to cover the costs, or sell the company. 

Hence the question – which path will Telegram take? I’d like to make a few points to clarify our plan:

1. We are not going to sell the company like the founders of Whatsapp. The world needs Telegram to stay independent as a place where users are respected and high-quality service is ensured. Telegram must continue to serve the world as an example of a tech company that strives for perfection and integrity. And, as the sad examples of our predecessors show, that is impossible if you become part of a corporation.

2. Telegram is here to stay for a long time. We began developing our apps for our personal use over 8 years ago and have come a long way since then. In the process, Telegram changed the way people communicate in several aspects – encryption, functionality, simplicity, design, speed. This journey has just started. There’s much more we can – and will – bring to the world. 

3. In order to make points 1 and 2 possible, Telegram will begin to generate revenue, starting next year. We will do it in accordance with our values and the pledges we have made over the last 7 years. Thanks to our current scale, we will be able to do it in a non-intrusive way. Most users will hardly notice any change.

4. All the features that are currently free will stay free. We will add some new features for business teams or power users. Some of these features will require more resources and will be paid for by these premium users. Regular users will be able to keep enjoying Telegram – for free, forever. 

5. All parts of Telegram devoted to messaging will remain ad-free. We think that displaying ads in private 1-to-1 chats or group chats is a bad idea. Communication between people should be free of advertising of any sort. 

6. In addition to its messaging component, Telegram has a social networking dimension. Our massive public one-to-many channels can have millions of subscribers each and are more like Twitter feeds. In many markets the owners of such channels display ads to earn money, sometimes using third-party ad platforms. The ads they post look like regular messages, and are often intrusive. We will fix this by introducing our own Ad Platform for public one-to-many channels – one that is user-friendly, respects privacy and allows us to cover the costs of servers and traffic.

7. If Telegram starts earning money, the community should also benefit. For example, If we monetize large public one-to-many channels via the Ad Platform, the owners of these channels will receive free traffic in proportion to their size. Or, if Telegram introduces premium stickers with additional expressive features, the artists who make stickers of this new type will also get a part of the profit. We want millions of Telegram-based creators and small businesses to thrive, enriching the experience of all our users.

This is the Telegram way.

It will allow us to keep innovating and keep growing for decades to come. We will be able to launch countless new features and welcome billions of new users. While doing that, we will remain independent and stay true to our values, redefining how a tech company should operate.

随着Telegram接近5亿活跃用户，你们中的许多人都在问一个问题–谁将为支持这一增长而付费？毕竟，更多的用户意味着更多的流量和服务器费用。这样规模的项目每年至少需要数亿美元才能继续进行。

在Telegram的大部分历史中，我都是用个人储蓄来支付公司的费用。但是，随着当前的增长，Telegram有望达到数十亿用户并需要适当的资金。当技术项目达到这种规模时，通常有两种选择–开始赚钱以支付成本或出售公司。

因此，问题–电报将走哪条路？我想提出几点澄清我们的计划：

1.我们不会像Whatsapp的创始人那样出售公司。全世界都需要Telegram作为尊重用户并确保高质量服务的地方保持独立。 Telegram必须继续为世界服务，以科技公司为追求完美和诚信而努力。而且，正如我们前任的不幸例子所表明的那样，如果您成为公司的一部分，那是不可能的。

2.电报在这里停留很长时间。从8年前开始，我们就开始为个人用途开发应用程序，此后已经走了很长一段路。在此过程中，Telegram在几个方面改变了人们的交流方式–加密，功能，简单性，设计，速度。这段旅程才刚刚开始。我们可以而且将会带给世界更多的东西。

3.为了使第1点和第2点成为可能，Telegram从明年开始将开始产生收入。我们将按照我们的价值观和过去7年的承诺来做到这一点。由于我们目前的规模，我们将能够以一种非侵入性的方式做到这一点。大多数用户几乎不会注意到任何更改。

4.当前免费的所有功能将保持免费。我们将为业务团队或高级用户添加一些新功能。其中一些功能将需要更多资源，并由这些高级用户付费。普通用户将可以永久免费享受Telegram。

5. Telegram致力于消息传递的所有部分将保持无广告状态。我们认为，在私人一对一聊天或群聊中显示广告是一个坏主意。人与人之间的交流不应带有任何形式的广告。

6.除了其消息传递组件外，Telegram还具有社交网络功能。我们庞大的公共一对多渠道每个可以拥有数百万个订阅者，并且更像Twitter feed。在许多市场中，此类渠道的所有者有时会使用第三方广告平台来展示广告来赚钱。他们发布的广告看起来像是常规消息，并且通常具有干扰性。我们将通过为公共的一对多渠道引入我们自己的广告平台来解决此问题-该平台易于使用，尊重隐私并允许我们负担服务器和流量的费用。

7.如果Telegram开始赚钱，社区也应该受益。例如，如果我们通过广告平台通过大型公共一对多渠道获利，则这些渠道的所有者将根据其规模按比例获得免费流量。或者，如果Telegram引入了具有附加表达功能的高级贴纸，则制作这种新型贴纸的艺术家也将获得部分利润。我们希望数百万基于电报的创作者和小型企业蓬勃发展，从而丰富我们所有用户的体验。

这是电报方式。

这将使我们在未来数十年中不断创新并保持增长。我们将能够推出无数新功能，并欢迎数十亿新用户。在此过程中，我们将保持独立并忠实于我们的价值观，重新定义科技公司的运作方式。