Telegram profile

Premium subscriptions, sponsored messages and other commercial features support it.

Telegram reported $870 million revenue for the first half of 2025, according to Financial Times reporting relayed in January 2026. Its founder reported $547 million profit for 2024.

Premium, advertising and platform commerce give Telegram several revenue routes. Its founder reported $547 million profit in 2024; that dated figure does not supply a 2025 net-margin percentage.

Telegram’s financing includes a $1.7 billion five-year bond issue in 2025. Bond principal is debt, not the company’s equity valuation.

Premium, sponsored messages, Stars, gifts and mini-app commerce turn a messaging platform into a larger digital economy.

Bots, mini-apps and Telegram’s AI text-transformation features bring AI into conversations and publishing. The bot ecosystem is much broader than one official assistant.

Telegram operates the platform; independent developers supply many bots and mini-apps. Premium expands access to some platform AI features.

Telegram says it does not use personal data to target ads, but it stores cloud-chat content to deliver its cloud service and processes account and security-related data. Secret Chats use a different architecture. Bots and mini-apps can expose information to separate operators.

Telegram sets platform rules; channel/group administrators manage their spaces, and bot providers control their own responses.

Choose notification and privacy settings, inspect the operator of a bot and distinguish cloud chats from end-to-end encrypted Secret Chats.

15/25 points

Telegram distinguishes cloud chats from Secret Chats. End-to-end encryption is not the default property of all Telegram conversations. Public channels, bots and ordinary cloud history should not be given the privacy properties of a Secret Chat.

15/25 points

Telegram says it does not use personal data to target ads, but it stores cloud-chat content to deliver its cloud service and processes account and security-related data. Secret Chats use a different architecture. Bots and mini-apps can expose information to separate operators.

10/25 points

A public channel can broadcast confidently without providing reliable sources.

20/25 points

Choose notification and privacy settings, inspect the operator of a bot and distinguish cloud chats from end-to-end encrypted Secret Chats.

Higher-scoring options for a comparable use:

• Signal — 85/100 versus 60/100

  Comparable use case: private personal messaging

  Private personal messaging: 85/100 compared with 60/100. People are the reason to return, rather than a ranked public feed.

  Sources (4)

  • Signal — Trust evidencePublic primary documentation · accessed 18 October 2026
  • Signal — Trust evidencePublic primary documentation · accessed 18 October 2026
  • Signal — official product pagePrimary product · accessed 18 October 2026
  • Signal - Private Messenger — Apple App StorePrimary store metadata · accessed 18 October 2026

• WhatsApp — 70/100 versus 60/100

  Comparable use case: private personal messaging

  Private personal messaging: 70/100 compared with 60/100. The strongest retention feature is often simply that your people are already there.

  Sources (4)

  • WhatsApp — Trust evidencePublic primary documentation · accessed 18 October 2026
  • WhatsApp — Trust evidencePublic primary documentation · accessed 18 October 2026
  • WhatsApp — official product pagePrimary product · accessed 18 October 2026
  • WhatsApp Messenger — Apple App StorePrimary store metadata · accessed 18 October 2026

Replies, channel updates, gifts and mini-app rewards provide several different reasons to reopen Telegram.

Unread counts, group activity, channel posts and bot messages keep activity close to hand.

Cloud history across devices, large groups and embedded mini-apps reduce the need to leave the service.

Channel audiences, public groups, collectible gifts and Premium presentation turn communication into visible membership and status.

Fast-moving channels and limited collectible gifts make timeliness valuable. A mini-app can also introduce its own streaks or reward deadlines.