Telegram has crossed 900 million users and is nearing profitability as the company moves closer to a potential blockbuster initial public offering (IPO), according to founder Pavel Durov in an interview with the Financial Times.
In his first public interview since 2017, Durov said that Dubai-based Telegram had grown to become one of the world’s most popular social media apps while making “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenues after introducing advertising and premium subscription services two years ago.
“We are hoping to become profitable next year, if not this year,” the Russia-born founder told the Financial Times. He added that the encrypted instant messaging service has 900 million monthly active users, up from 500 million at the beginning of 2021.
Messaging rival WhatsApp, owned by Meta, has 1.8 billion monthly active users, while encrypted communications app Signal has 30 million as of February 2024, according to analysis by Sensor Tower, though this data only covers mobile app use.
Yearly expenses stood at less than 70 cents for each monthly user, Durov said. As part of its effort to generate revenues, Telegram has been testing advertising in certain regions, mandating a minimum spend of between EUR1 million and EU10 million per marketer or agency. This year, it plans to expand the offering globally and to smaller advertisers using automated systems.
The company this month will introduce revenue sharing with the creators that run its channels, promising them a 50% cut of marketing dollars. In addition, it is also introducing business accounts and a “social discovery” feature, which will help users to meet or date people near them, Durov said.
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Durov, who fully owns Telegram, said the company had “been offered US$30 billion-plus valuations” from potential investors including “global late-stage tech funds”, but has ruled out selling the platform while it explores a future initial public offering.
“The main reason why we started to monetise is because we wanted to remain independent,” he said. “Generally speaking, we see value in [an IPO] as a means to democratise access to Telegram’s value.”
According to the Financial Times, two people close to the matter said Telegram would probably aim for a US listing once the company had reached profitability and market conditions were favourable. Durov declined to comment on a timeline or a possible venue but said Telegram had “studied several options”.
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Telegram has raised about US$2 billion in debt financing, from a US$1 billion bond offering in 2021, as well as further issues of US$750 million and US$270 million conducted last year.
Those bondholders will be able to convert the senior unsecured debt into equity at between a 10% and 20% discount to Telegram’s IPO price if a float takes place before the end of March 2026 — an incentive for the company to list before that date.
In the event of an IPO, Durov said Telegram would consider selling an allocation of stock to loyal users, following Reddit which recently announced that it would allocate a portion of its shares to retail investors ahead of a New York listing as early as March.
Durov said he had been receiving interest in carrying out a smaller equity raise. “That remains a possibility if we wanted to raise funds, for example, to fuel our [artificial intelligence] related ambitions,” he said, adding that the company was exploring introducing an AI-powered chatbot.
Telegram also plans to improve its moderation processes this year as multiple global elections unfold and “deploy AI-related mechanisms to address potential issues”.
