top | item 36782347

(no title)

Sure - but where's the revenue come from?

discuss

Chinese chat apps have monetised really well through e-commerce. Admittedly this success hasn't be achieved by WhatsApp etc, so it not trivial to replicate.

sofixa|2 years ago

They have Telegram Premium, and ads for public channels, so there are revenue streams.

chii|2 years ago

the revenue comes from the future acquirer of the company paying out to the current shareholders. I don't really believe consumers of telegram are willing to pay for it. It's in the same boat financially as twitter - but got better PR atm.

Thoeu388|2 years ago

How much revenue do they need to generate for $250M investment? Paid version with extra features, $40M per year, and they will do fine.

JumpCrisscross|2 years ago

> How much revenue do they need to generate for $250M investment

$30 to 40 million for interest on this issue.

Telegram sold $1bn of bonds in March 2021, when rates were 25 bps, with a 7% coupon [1]. Rates are now 5.25%. Their new bonds should thus yield 12%+.

That implies a total annual interest bill over $100 million, with a refinancing in 2026 on $1bn. Not ideal.

[1] https://bondblox.com/news/messaging-app-telegram-sells-bonds...