Telegram founder to users: Here’s why we are not WhatsApp despite introducing ads on the platform with Sponsored Messages – Times of India

Telegram recently introduced Ad Platform, a program that allows individuals and companies to send Sponsored Messages. According to the company, the Telegram Ad Platform is a tool to create Sponsored Messages in public one-to-many channels with 1000+ subscribers. The company claims that it is introducing ads to help support its growth. However, the move has not gone well with some users.
In a blog post, the company has tried to highlight how and why it is different from WhatsApp despite introducing ads on its platform similar to WhatsApp Business. In a blog post Pavel Durov, product manager, CEO and founder of Telegram talks about why with Telegram users are more ad-free than with WhatsApp. Here are the key reasons he gives:
* WhatsApp already shares user data with advertisers even though they don’t show ads themselves.
* On Telegram, however, advertisers will never get your private data.
* Besides, if you use Telegram the way you use WhatsApp, you will never see a single ad.
* Sponsored messages can only appear in channels, which are a unique social networking feature Telegram added several years after launch. If WhatsApp introduces a similar feature, they are likely to also display ads there, like their parent company already does on Instagram and Facebook.
Telegram CEO says that online ads should no longer be synonymous with the abuse of user privacy. “We’d like to redefine how a tech company should operate by setting an example of a self-sustainable platform that respects its users and content creators,” he writes.
In the blog post, Durov has also given links two articles about WhatsApp beong penalised for collecting data. One article is about Germany’s lead data protection regulator saying that it was taking action against the social network to prevent the collection of personal data from users of its WhatsApp messaging app. The second is about Ireland watchdog slapping 225 million euros fine on WhatsApp for flouting EU data rules.