Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, revealed that personal account holders on the messaging platform now have the option to upgrade to business accounts by subscribing to a monthly service.
This upgrade allows businesses, such as small cafés and retail shops, to display essential information like their location and working hours on their profile.
Business account features include the ability to categorize chats with color-coded labels, set up automatic welcome or away messages, and create shortcuts for rapid responses.
Durov mentioned on his channel that Telegram is set to introduce additional features for businesses, such as integrating AI-driven chatbots for enhanced customer service capabilities. He emphasized that these chatbots would act as “invisible secretaries,” capable of handling various conversations, thus elevating the level of automated customer support.
Telegram aims to rival WhatsApp Business, which has already attracted over 200 million active users monthly, with these new offerings.
Unlike WhatsApp Business which generates revenue based on message types and interaction frequency, Telegram is opting for a subscription model for access to its business functionalities.
WhatsApp, owned by Meta, has also rolled out several features tailored for businesses, including customized customer communications and tools to facilitate e-commerce transactions directly within the app.
In the past two years, Telegram has been expanding its revenue streams by introducing premium subscriptions, a self-custodial cryptocurrency wallet, and conducting auctions for sought-after usernames.
With a global user base exceeding 800 million, Telegram is also preparing to debut its advertising platform, which includes a revenue-sharing model for channel operators, later this month.
