Telegram is very popular in Ukraine, and I’ve become a regular user of it to keep in touch with friends in Ukraine as well as some crypto related groups. Telegram has the distinction of being one of very few indepdently owned cross-platform messaging services. I also signed up for Telegram Premium when it came out because I wanted to support the product. This update from Durov on Premium is pretty incredible.

Telegram Premium, which we introduced just 5 months ago, quickly surpassed 1 million subscribers and has become one of the most successful examples of a social media subscription plan ever launched. While it still represents just a fraction of Telegram’s overall revenue, Telegram Premium is growing steadily every day, and one day may even rival our ads.

In a matter of 5 months they’ve added a $60M recurring revenue stream.