Telegram takes the top spot in the Chinese Google Play rankings

Pavel Durov commented on the removal of Telegram from the Chinese App Store. According to him, the total number of downloads for the messenger has not decreased, and the app holds the top position in the Chinese Google Play top charts from the number of installs. Users from China use VPNs to circumvent the ban.

Durov has also shared his theory on why apps were removed from the App Store in China: the government is forcing iPhone users to switch to devices from local companies like Xiaomi. Android does not have a strict tie-in to the manufacturer's app store, allowing users to install apps from other sources.

Telegram Removed from App Store in China

According to Bloomberg, the App Store has removed Telegram from its platform in China at the request of authorities. In addition, Threads, WhatsApp, and Signal were also removed. Previously, Chinese authorities required developers to register in order for their apps to remain on the domestic market.

Telegram reached 900 million monthly users

Half of these 900 millions users open Telegram daily. According to DataAI, Telegram is the 6th most used and 6th most downloaded app in the world. 

What’s more  Telegram was cash flow positive in the 1st quarter of 2024 and is on track to become profitable this year. This solidifies our position as an independent company that puts its users first. When we started developing Telegram 12 years ago, we believed that people are inherently smart. And smart people will always choose the freedom and quality of Telegram over the restrictions and mediocrity of legacy apps. It seems we were right.

New Telegram Monetization System

A source close to Telegram talked to Durov's Code on the specifics of the new monetization system. Here are the main points of the article :

• The Telegram Advertising Platform  now allows purchasing ads only with TON. Payment by fiat currency remains available only to advertising agencies: their personal accounts on the Telegram website still allow this.

• Ads purchased with TON can only be targeted to specific channels. It is impossible to target them to any topic or location. Such ads cannot contain external links, but the entry threshold for buying them is only 20 TON.

• Ads purchased with TON aren't displayed to channel subscribers if the phone numbers linked to their accounts are issued by Russia, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, or Germany.

• The "Monetization" tab is available in the channel statistics section only if at least half of the channel's subscribers have phone numbers issued outside of Russia, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, or Germany, and the total number of channel subscribers exceeds 1,000. The location of the channel owner and the phone number of their account do not affect the display of the "Monetization" tab.

• Even if the "Monetization" tab is not displayed on a channel, the channel owner's account will still receive funds from ads purchased with TON and shown to their channel's subscribers. However, they will not be able to withdraw these funds until the conditions from the previous point are met.

Introducing Telegram Business

Starting today, anyone can turn their Telegram account into a business account – and get access to business features, such as opening hours, location, quick replies, automated messages, custom start page, chatbot support, and more.

Introducing Telegram Business

Telegram has long allowed developers to build powerful bots and mini-apps which were widely used by businesses.

Starting today, any user can easily use business features — without any coding skills.

Hours and Location

Businesses can display their hours of operation and show their location on a map.

Users will know where to find you and immediately see if you're open.

Start Page

Businesses can customize their start page for empty chats, choosing which text and sticker people see before they start a conversation.

This lets you showcase info about products and services or welcome customers with branded artwork.

Quick Replies

Telegram Business allows you to create quick replies. Quick replies are shortcuts for sending preset messages that may contain several messages and support text formatting, links, stickers, media, and files.

This helps you quickly send information that your customers often need – like a schedule of classes or a PDF with your menu.

Typing a / in the message bar shows a panel with all of your quick replies – that you can send or edit in one tap. This only works in private chats, not groups.

Greeting Messages

For more automation, you can set a greeting message that will be sent to users who contact you for the first time. This will ensure they get an instant reply with important info – or just a friendly hello. 

Your greeting may also include answers to frequent questions or more details about your business.

You can specify a period after which a new message will result in your greeting being sent again.

Away Messages

You can also set an away message to be sent when your business is closed or while you're on vacation.

This way people will always know when they can expect a response from your business.

To prevent sending business messages to friends, family, or employees, you can limit any automated messages to exclude specific chats or entire chat categories.

Tags for Chats

With Telegram Business or Premium, you can add colored labels to chats, giving them unique tags based on the chat folders they are in.

This helps you quickly differentiate between customers in your chat list based on their status, needs, or priority level.

All Telegram users can create custom chat folders to organize their chats – adding separate tabs to the chat list for Work, School, News and more.

Links to Chat

To make it even easier for customers to reach out, you can create links to chat with your business – like a button to reserve a table or track an order. When tapped, these links instantly open a chat with you and paste a suggested message for the user.

You can use these links both inside and outside of Telegram – from a link on your site to a QR code on a restaurant menu.

Each link shows how many times it was tapped so you can track its performance.

Chatbots for Business

Business users can connect Telegram bots that will process and answer messages on their behalf. This allows businesses to seamlessly integrate any existing tools and workflows, or add AI assistants that manage their chats.

When adding a chatbot, you can configure which chats the bot can access – such as excluding all chats with your contacts, or only responding to new chats.

This opens a new era for Telegram Bots – we welcome all developers to create new services that will help businesses automate and improve their communication with Telegram users. See our Bot Manuals for details.

Telegram will be introducing new features for businesses in the coming updates. For the moment, all Telegram Business features are available for free to Premium subscribers. You can find them in Settings > Telegram Business.

Supreme Court of Spain Suspends Order to Block Telegram

Today, the Supreme Court of Spain suspended its order to block Telegram in the country as it awaits a police report on the impact of the temporary ban on users.

Judge Santiago Pedraz instructed the national police to prepare a report on "the characteristics of Telegram, as well as the impact of the temporary suspension on its users." As a reminder, the order to block Telegram in Spain was issued on Friday, March 22.

New Telegram Bond Issued for $330 Million

Pavel Durov announced that last week Telegram had issued bonds worth $330 million to accelerate the development of the messenger. The applications for bonds placement were oversubscribed, and on top of this, the majority of the buyers consisted of high-tier, high priced funds.

Telegram has previously issued bonds on:

• March 2021: The first bond placement for $1 billion.
• April 2021: Bonds placed for an additional $750 million.
• July 2023: Bonds were issued for $270 million, about a quarter of which were purchased by Durov himself.

Telegram Business Features

In the upcoming Telegram update, users with a Premium subscription will gain access to a set of business oriented features. Users will be able to specify the location and opening hours of their business, prepare welcome messages, messages to be sent automatically to clients while you are away, and use quick replies.