Telegram has reported a remarkable $540 million profit last year, marking its first annual profit after years of losses. The Dubai-based messaging app’s revenues surged to $1.4 billion in 2024, up from $343 million the previous year, based on a company presentation reviewed by the Financial Times.
This turnaround comes despite ongoing legal threats to its leadership stemming from French investigations into its founder, Pavel Durov.
Sources familiar with the matter say these strong earnings were shared with potential investors ahead of Telegram's $1.5 billion bond offering, launched to repurchase existing debt. The bond sale, which started on Tuesday, could conclude as early as next week.
Telegram’s growth has been fueled in part by a surge in paying users and revenues linked to its cryptocurrency ecosystem. The company reported a shift from a $173 million loss in 2023 to profitability in 2024, highlighting the success of its premium subscriptions, advertising, and a growing "partnerships and ecosystem" segment.
Telegram is built around its open platform that enables developers to create "mini apps" directly within the messaging app, covering sectors like commerce and gaming. This ecosystem runs on the Ton blockchain, originally developed by Telegram but now maintained by the open-source community. Toncoin, the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency, is deeply integrated into the app, facilitating payments within mini apps and purchases of Telegram advertisements. Last year, Telegram profited from deals involving Toncoin and sales of its own cryptocurrency holdings.
Despite this strong financial performance, Telegram's future remains uncertain. Pavel Durov, who holds Russian, French, and United Arab Emirates citizenships, was detained by French authorities in Paris in August 2024. He faces charges over the app’s alleged failure to effectively combat criminal content, including child abuse material and terrorism-related posts. Conviction could lead to a prison sentence.
In response to the investigation, Durov has publicly criticized French authorities. He claimed that child sexual abuse was used as a pretext for his detainment, arguing that the true focus was geopolitical. He also alleged that Nicolas Lerner, head of France's domestic intelligence agency, requested that Telegram ban conservative voices in Romania ahead of elections- claims rejected by French intelligence.
Telegram now boasts over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. It operates with a lean internal team of around 60 staff members while outsourcing much of its moderation to contractors.
John Hyman, Telegram's chief investment officer, told investors the company has met all its financial milestones and indicated that a potential initial public offering (IPO) could happen if market conditions improve. However, the French investigation remains a possible obstacle to an IPO, though Telegram expects the case could be resolved within the year.
The bond offering currently being marketed carries a 9% yield and provides investors with an option to purchase shares at a 20% discount during any future IPO, mirroring the terms of prior bond sales. Since 2021, Telegram has issued approximately $2.4 billion in bonds and repurchased $375 million of outstanding debt in late 2024.
Looking ahead, Telegram aims to grow revenues to $2 billion in 2025 — a 46% increase year-on-year — with a projected profit of $720 million. As of February 2025, the company held roughly $530 million in cash, excluding its cryptocurrency assets.
In addition to financial growth, Telegram is expanding into artificial intelligence. The company announced a new partnership with Elon Musk's AI firm xAI, integrating its Grok chatbot into Telegram. They plan to promote Grok within the app and share the resulting revenue. This collaboration marks Grok’s first significant expansion beyond Musk's own platform, X (formerly Twitter). Both Durov and Musk have voiced similar views on free speech, with Musk recently amplifying Durov's criticisms of French intelligence to his 220 million followers, tweeting simply: "Wow".
The Israeli military has begun a new wave of strikes on Tehran, it said late on Monday. The strikes came after it issued...
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Australia on Tuesday (3 March), aiming to bolster relations between...
The U.S. and Israeli air war against Iran widened on Monday, with no end in sight as Israel atta...
Iran and its proxies could target the U.S. with attacks in respons...
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones resulting in a limited fire and some material damage...
The U.S. and Israeli air war against Iran widened on Monday, with no end in sight as Israel attacked Lebanon in response to strikes by Hezbollah and Iran kept up its attacks on Gulf states that host U.S. military bases.
Iran and its proxies could target the U.S. with attacks in response to the Saturday killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei by Israeli and U.S. strikes, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment reviewed by Reuters.
The U.S. embassy in Riyadh was hit by two drones resulting in a limited fire and some material damage, the kingdom's defence ministry said in a post on X on Tuesday, citing an initial assessment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the U.S. and Israel's war against Iran may take "some time" but it will not take years.
Follow the latest developments and global reaction after the U.S. and Israel launched “major combat operations” in Iran, prompting retaliation from Tehran.
Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Saudi Aramco closed its Ras Tanura refinery on Monday following an Iranian drone strike, an industry source told Reuters as Tehran retaliated across the Gulf after a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iranian targets over the weekend.
The Kremlin is utilising the recent United States and Israeli military strikes on Iran to validate its ongoing war in Ukraine. Russian officials are pointing to the escalation in the Middle East as evidence that Western nations do not adhere to international rules.
The Middle East crisis intensifies after the deadly attack on the compound of the Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei on Saturday that killed him, other family members and senior figures. Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on U.S. targets in the region.
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has moved into a pivotal constitutional role following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, becoming the clerical member of Iran’s temporary leadership council under Article 111 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The European Commission sees no immediate impact on the European Union's security of oil supply from the escalating conflict in the Middle East, it said in an email to EU governments, seen by Reuters on Monday (2 March).
Paramount Skydance emerged as the winner in a months-long battle to acquire Warner Bros Discovery after streaming giant Netflix on Thursday refused to raise its bid for the storied Hollywood studio.
Global debt surged to a record $348.3 trillion at the end of 2025, after nearly $29 trillion was added over the year, marking the fastest annual increase since the pandemic, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF) report released on Wednesday.
Millions of Colombian roses have arrived in the United States just in time for Valentine’s Day, keeping the country on track as the world’s second-largest flower exporter. Between 15 January and 9 February, Colombia shipped roughly 65,000 tons of fresh-cut blooms.
Russia’s car market is continuing to receive tens of thousands of foreign-brand vehicles via China despite sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a journalistic investigation has found.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment