Next month, arrive at a brand new era as Telegram unveils ad revenue sharing with toncoin.

“We are delighted to announce the upcoming launch of our ad platform in the next month,” says Pavel Durov, CEO and founder of Telegram. This new platform will offer channel owners the opportunity to receive financial rewards for their hard work.

With the use of toncoin on the TON blockchain, Telegram will pay out rewards to channel owners, starting with a 50% revenue share for ads displayed in their channels. This move marks a significant shift towards content monetization and presents an exciting opportunity for channel owners around the world.

Durov explains that while Telegram’s broadcast channels generate an impressive one trillion views per month, only 10% of these views are currently monetized through Telegram Ads. This is where the new ad platform comes in, opening up monetization possibilities for channel owners in nearly one hundred countries.

Although specifics about eligibility have not been provided yet, TechCrunch has reached out to learn more.

“To ensure fast and secure ad payments and withdrawals, we will exclusively use the TON blockchain,” Durov writes in his announcement post on Telegram. This aligns with their approach on Fragment, where Telegram usernames are sold and revenue is shared with channel owners in Toncoin. This creates a “virtuous circle” where content creators can choose to cash out their Toncoins or reinvest in promoting and upgrading their channels.

The news of the ad platform launch has caused a surge in the value of the TON token, which has seen a 40% increase to $2.92 immediately after the announcement. As of writing, the token is sitting at $2.65.

With this announcement, Telegram will be joining the ranks of other platforms such as YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), which also offer ad revenue sharing with their users. YouTube currently offers a 55% share of ad revenue to creators in the YouTube Partner Program, while X began offering revenue sharing to users in July 2023. Additionally, Meta has been testing a new payout model for its Ads on Reels monetization program.

Telegram’s user base of over 800 million monthly active users and 500 billion views in broadcast channels each month make it a major player in the content monetization space. The launch of their ad platform presents an exciting opportunity for channel owners to not only share their content with large audiences, but also receive financial rewards for doing so. It will be interesting to see how this new platform will impact the monetization capabilities of Telegram channels in the future.