Telegram Turns a Profit for the First Time (nytimes.com)
- Reference: 0175740125
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/12/23/1443225/telegram-turns-a-profit-for-the-first-time
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/technology/telegram-business-profit.html
> In recent months, Telegram, the lightly moderated social media app, has held discussions with investors who lent it more than $2 billion. The goal: to reassure them that the company [1]remains a viable bet after its founder, Pavel Durov, was [2]arrested in France in August on charges related to illicit activities on the platform.
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> In the conversations, Telegram told investors that it was tackling its legal troubles head-on by policing more user-generated content. The company also said it had paid down a "meaningful amount" of its debt, according to an investor in the talks who was not authorized to discuss confidential information. Telegram has been under increasing scrutiny around the world this year for hosting illicit content from child predators, drug traffickers and other criminals. The company also faces pressure another way: to prove it can make money.
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> For years, skeptics have questioned if a platform known for hosting toxic material could turn a profit. Unlike social media companies such as Meta, Telegram took an unusual business path: It did not raise money from venture capitalists, sell advertising based on user data or hire aggressively to accelerate growth. Instead, it relied on Mr. Durov's fame and fortune to sustain its business, took on debt and barreled into the cryptocurrency market. [...] The result: Telegram is set to be profitable this year for the first time, according to a person with knowledge of the finances who declined to be identified discussing internal figures. Revenue is on track to surpass $1 billion, up from nearly $350 million last year, the person said.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/technology/telegram-business-profit.html
[2] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/08/24/2253249/telegram-ceo-arested-in-france
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"Toxic" speech is any speech which harms the interests of the demons who rule this evil empire.
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Hey, the founder gets arrested, threatened with empire extradition, agrees to install back doors, and voila! profit.
Carrots and sticks, every single time.
"lightly moderated" (Score:2)
I've never been on telegram. I'm just a bit shocked that the NYT refrained from calling something that isn't far-left a "far-right social media network." Maybe that's growth?
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It gets called plenty of other negative things in the article. maybe they just don't want to give right wingers any ideas, lest they try it and find out it's a better news source than the Meta-owned alternatives.
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The company itself loses money but how about all the suits? They're all getting paid millions. They know it might collapse but who cares they're set for life and guaranteed another board position in a new startup.
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The CEOs do good, but what about the investors? You pour money into something and don't see any returns for decades and decades.
It's either a scam (e.g. you're planning on offloading the stock to suckers or corrupt public pensions) or you're investing for propaganda. The Saudis for example spend a *lot* of money investing in money losing social media companies.
You can thank Russia (Score:2)
All those pictures and videos of dead Russians, their destroyed equipment, sinking ships, and burning oil refineries have driven people to the site. More eyeballs = more revenue.
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I'm at a loss as to how they are monetizing my eyeballs. I've yet to see an ad on the platform.
The t.me/enginnering26 channel appears to be from a Ukranian EOD crew. They're posting a lot of disassembled photographs of mines and munitions. It's interesting stuff. They have shown some 3-D printed mines; The only metal in them is a sharpened bolt that acts as a trigger when it hits the metal-cased initiator.
Lucky them (Score:1)
No, literally. I'd love to see a balance sheet to see if crypto doubling in price is what they consider income. It sounds like they're not publicly traded and thus can limit what they show publicly. But I bet some public tax documents will reveal that most of their "income" was crypto holdings going up, which is less "income" and more "investments/gambling."
I did check and they have a Telegram Premium, which I wasn't aware of. And if they were publicly traded they'd probably be saying "Guys...criminals ha
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> No, literally. I'd love to see a balance sheet to see if crypto doubling in price is what they consider income. It sounds like they're not publicly traded and thus can limit what they show publicly. But I bet some public tax documents will reveal that most of their "income" was crypto holdings going up, which is less "income" and more "investments/gambling."
I could be wrong, as I am not a CPA, but a public company, would have to, IIRC, recognize crypto increase as unrealized gains from investments; unless they are sold and then they would show on the income statement as realized gains. Either way, they would not show up as operating income, which is what really matters unless you are betting on crypto, and then why bother with the expense of running Telegram?
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Considering this is all just from some anonymous alleged insider leaking information about their supposed profitability, I'm not buying any of it
Just for fun: I can't imagine any brands wanting to be associated with that site, so I did a quick search for "who is advertising on telegram". It turned up nothing but a bunch of fake websites promoting their ad platform. Search engines are rotting.