On March 31, messaging giant Telegram announced the launch of its new ad revenue-sharing model for owners of public channels on the platform. The firm’s CEO, Pavel Durov, initially teased the idea last month, adding that it would be powered by the TON blockchain.
Telegram reportedly generates 1 trillion views in channels every month. However, only 10% of these views are monetized by the Telegram Ads platform. According to the official announcement, users with at least 1000 subscribers on their public channel will now be eligible to receive 50% of the ad revenue generated from ads displayed on their channel.
These revenue-sharing models will be powered by the TON blockchain, and users will be paid via the network’s native toncoin (TON) cryptocurrency. The TON blockchain currently holds the record for the most transactions in a second. Telegram aims to leverage this, along with the blockchain network’s low fees.
This initiative further enhances the usability of the TON token, as users will be able to use it to promote their bots and channels. All payments using TON will be executed via Fragment, a free platform on the TON blockchain that allows users to transact collectible usernames on Telegram.
“Similar to our approach with Telegram usernames on Fragment, we will sell ads and share revenue with channel owners in Toncoin,” said Durov. “This will create a virtuous circle, in which content creators will be able to either cash out their Toncoins — or reinvest them in promoting and upgrading their channels,” he added.
The latest from Telegram comes as the TON blockchain has been drawing a lot of attention recently. Crypto asset manager 21 Shares recently listed an exchange-traded product (ETP) for staking TON. The 21Shares Toncoin Staking ETP (TONN) will offer investors staking rewards from TON without the hassle of setting up individual nodes.
This followed the TON token’s hitting an all-time high of $5.69 on March 25. The token has been up more than 90% over the past month and currently boasts a market cap of more than $18 billion. The surge was also fuelled by rumors of a potential IPO for Telegram. At the time of writing, the token was trading at $5.24, up 1.7% in the past 24 hours.
