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Telegram was not merely “on the way” to profitability when its founder made the announcement: on December 23, 2024, Pavel Durov said the company had become profitable for the first time in its three-year monetization history, with 2024 revenue above $1 billion. He also said Telegram ended the year with more than $500 million in cash reserves, excluding crypto assets. Those are management-reported figures, not a published, independently audited income statement.
What Durov said about Telegram’s 2024 finances
In a post on his personal Telegram channel, dated December 23, 2024, Durov reported the following figures. They describe his account of the company’s results; the post did not include financial statements or an audit.
| Item | Durov’s statement |
|---|---|
| 2024 revenue | More than $1 billion |
| Profitability | Telegram became profitable for the first time in its three-year monetization history |
| Cash reserves | More than $500 million at year-end, excluding crypto assets |
| Premium subscribers | More than 12 million in 2024; Durov said the number tripled during the year |
| Debt | About $2 billion issued over the prior four years; Durov said a meaningful portion was repaid in autumn 2024 |
| Advertising | Revenue increased “several times over”; no exact amount or growth rate was given |
Durov’s December 23, 2024 announcement is the source for each figure. The post did not state net income, operating income, EBITDA or free cash flow.
Why $1 billion in revenue is not $1 billion in profit
Revenue is the money a business brings in before subtracting the costs of operating it. Profit is what remains after relevant expenses are accounted for. Durov made two distinct claims—revenue exceeded $1 billion and Telegram became profitable—but the revenue figure alone does not establish the profit claim or reveal how large any profit was.
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The announcement did not provide business-line revenue, expense totals, a cash-flow statement or the accounting treatment of crypto assets. It also did not quantify payment-processing costs, advertising and creator revenue shares, taxes, interest costs or the effect of debt repayment. Without those details or independently available audited results, readers cannot calculate margins or verify the reported profit from the public announcement.
How Telegram makes money
Premium subscriptions
Telegram launched Premium in 2022. Durov said the service had more than 12 million subscribers in 2024, three times the prior year’s number. Premium bundles paid features such as faster downloads, larger uploads, exclusive reactions and stickers, and business-related functionality; subscribers also do not see Telegram’s channel ads. Telegram’s Premium FAQ describes the service. Pricing and purchase routes can differ by country and platform, so the subscriber count is not a disclosed subscription-revenue figure or a universal price.
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Advertising in public channels
Telegram says its ads appear in large public channels, not private chats, the chat list or ordinary one-to-one conversations. The company describes this advertising as contextual to the channel rather than targeted using personal user data. Telegram also said channel owners can receive 50% of advertising revenue from ads shown in their channels. That revenue share helps attract publishers, but it means gross advertising receipts are not the same as the amount Telegram retains. See Telegram’s advertising and monetization explanation and its channel-owner revenue-sharing announcement.
Stars, digital goods and mini apps
Telegram Stars are an in-app virtual currency for digital goods and services sold through bots and mini apps, including items such as e-books, courses and in-game purchases. Telegram said more than 400 million users interacted with bots and mini apps monthly when Stars launched in June 2024; that is Telegram’s usage figure, not an independently audited measure. Developers can use earned Stars for Telegram advertising or withdraw through the ecosystem for Toncoin rewards, subject to Telegram’s mechanisms and conditions. The Stars announcement and Stars API documentation explain the product and revenue flows.
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Creator payments and paid access
Telegram’s creator tools include Star Reactions, paid media and monthly paid channel subscriptions. Telegram says channel owners receive 100% of Stars from Star Reactions, though a Star balance is not automatically cash: conversion, withdrawal terms and timing apply. The company also supports gifts and suggested posts, where a channel owner can accept Stars or Toncoin for a proposed post. Suggested-post payments may be subject to refunds, and earned Stars can have a withdrawal delay. Details appear in Telegram’s posts on subscriptions, Star Reactions and paid media and suggested posts.
Business services and Gateway
Telegram Business features are included with Premium, according to Telegram’s product information. Its business-facing Gateway service offers phone-number authentication through Telegram as an alternative to traditional SMS. Telegram advertised an example price of $0.01 per verification and compared it with SMS verification that can cost $0.50 or more; these are promotional reference figures, not a universal final price. Availability and actual costs should be checked for a company’s market and use case. See Telegram’s Gateway announcement.
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What TON and crypto do—and do not—tell us
Toncoin is integrated into parts of Telegram’s creator and developer economy. Stars can be converted into Toncoin rewards through the ecosystem, and Toncoin can be used for some advertising purchases and creator payments. Telegram also supports affiliate programs for mini apps, with developer-set commissions, as described in its affiliate-program announcement.
That does not establish that TON generated Telegram’s $1 billion in revenue. Durov’s announcement gave no complete accounting split among subscriptions, ads, Stars, services and crypto-related transactions. He specifically excluded crypto assets from the more-than-$500-million cash-reserve figure; that distinction does not show whether crypto activity affected reported revenue or profit. Token-price volatility, conversion terms and accounting treatment can all matter, but their effect on Telegram’s reported 2024 results was not disclosed.
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What the debt statement means
Durov said Telegram had issued about $2 billion of debt over the four years before his December 2024 post and repaid a meaningful portion during autumn 2024. He did not disclose the outstanding balance, interest rates, maturities or repayment total. The statement therefore offers context for Telegram’s financing, but it is not enough to conclude that the company has no debt or to quantify its future debt costs.
Is the reported profitability likely to last?
The 2024 milestone is significant, but one management-reported year does not settle whether Telegram’s earnings are durable. Several features of its model could support recurring income, while others make margins and future results harder to assess.
- Recurring subscriptions: Premium can generate repeat revenue, but Telegram has not disclosed subscriber conversion, churn or subscription revenue.
- Advertising growth and sharing: Durov said ad revenue rose several times over, without giving a baseline or precise rate. Channel-owner sharing supports distribution but reduces Telegram’s retained share.
- Creator and mini-app economics: Stars, paid access and affiliate programs can broaden transactions on the platform, but payout terms, refunds and conversion affect what Telegram ultimately keeps.
- Crypto exposure: Toncoin can facilitate rewards and payments, but volatility and accounting choices may complicate reported results. Telegram did not disclose how those factors affected its 2024 profit.
- Debt and operating costs: The amount of debt still outstanding and the costs of payments, compliance, moderation and platform operations are not available in Durov’s announcement.
- Platform and regulatory risk: A wider role for mini apps, payments and advertising can bring additional fraud, consumer-protection and regulatory obligations.
What remains undisclosed
Durov’s announcement establishes what Telegram’s founder said about 2024, but it leaves important questions unanswered. No full audited breakdown accompanied the announcement, and the information cited here does not independently verify Telegram’s 2025 or 2026 results. In particular, the public figures do not show:
- Net income, operating income, EBITDA or free cash flow.
- Revenue and costs by product or geographic market.
- Premium conversion, churn and average revenue per subscriber.
- Payment fees, creator payouts, refunds and other material expenses.
- Current debt balance, interest expense and repayment schedule.
- Crypto holdings, crypto-related gains or losses, and their accounting treatment.
Results filed by a separate company that holds TON are not Telegram’s financial statements; they cannot verify Telegram’s profitability.
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