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Pavel clearly has a social agenda behind Telegram. He wants to provide access to independent uncensored communication platform to everyone for free. So looks l

Pavel clearly has a social agenda behind Telegram. He wants to provide access to independent uncensored communication platform to everyone for free. So looks like ads is the only other option left for now.

qwerty456127 6y ago
Today ads never come without tracking. This is the problem. And even without tracking ads are a kind of garbage I don't want anyway. So, the day I get ads in Telegram I'm leaving. At the same time I wouldn't mind a reasonable (~1$/month, I don't do anything heavy, text messaging only) subscription.
- jamesrr39 6y ago
  I'm not sure about this, if anything there seems to have been a few services recently (e.g. DuckDuckGo, Qwant) that are supported by ads (presumably with metrics on ad performance for advertisers) but without following you around the internet. They seem to be doing ok as businesses, and it seems a reasonable compromise to me. I'm curious about how Telegram will decide what ads to show, how heavily it will try and personalize them; will the ads be relevant to the channel you are in or follow you around Telegram. FWIW, personally, I like the idea of a choice of ads or paid subscription best.
- elastolin 6y ago
  > ~1$/month, I don't do anything heavy, text messaging only Won't work. The vast majority people don't pay for messaging service, and without people, there's no messaging app. Ads are the only way forward. Will they offer an optional ad-free subscription? Maybe, but I wouldn't count on that, and it's likely to be higher than $1/month. > So, the day I get ads in Telegram I'm leaving Nobody cares.
  - qwerty456127 6y ago
    > Nobody cares I have stimulated many people to switch to Telegram because it is the best and all you have is to try it, realize that and motivate your friends to switch with you. Obviously many of these people will go with me once I find a better alternative. The situation probably is the same for many other people.
    - elastolin 6y ago
      > Obviously many of these people will go with me once I find a better alternative. People will go only if there's another service that's good enough and has enough user density. You may find the best privacy-oriented, ad-free messaging app, but if it's empty or if it's hard to use, it's essentially useless. By this point, it's hard to compete with the behemoths like WhatsApp or Telegram and people will not care about this nearly as much as you do. So, no, it's not 'obvious' at all.
      - qwerty456127 6y ago
        I have been told the same about Telegram just a couple of months ago. Most of the people I know have less than 10 contacts they actually care about and communicate regularly and it is not hard to convince the most of them to install an app you would sincerely recommend.
        elastolin 6y ago
        You don't understand how hard is for a messaging app to gain traction. Telegram has been growing for years and years, and it offers some significant advantages over WhatsApp. Even with all this marketing and effort, I'd say only about 10% of my WhatsApp contacts are on Telegram. Now you want to get people to move to yet another app? For what? Why would they? Because no ads? If a new app ever manages to become big (as in, Telegram-level big, let alone WhatsApp), it would take years of raising money and marketing. And how would they pay for that exactly? You think people pay a mensual/anual fee for a messaging apps when there are free alternatives? No, the answer is, again, ads. That or selling user data, which is much worse. You're too focused on the tech, but you have no understanding of how business works.
    - skinnymuch 6y ago
      Nobody cares is an exaggeration, but correct spiritual point for the grandstanding a minority of HN users make about always leaving X or Y or never joining Z because of situations like you mentioned. Yet nothing actually changes in the real word because of how much of a niche minority these people are.

qwerty456127 6y ago

Today ads never come without tracking. This is the problem. And even without tracking ads are a kind of garbage I don't want anyway. So, the day I get ads in Telegram I'm leaving. At the same time I wouldn't mind a reasonable (~1$/month, I don't do anything heavy, text messaging only) subscription.

jamesrr39 6y ago
I'm not sure about this, if anything there seems to have been a few services recently (e.g. DuckDuckGo, Qwant) that are supported by ads (presumably with metrics on ad performance for advertisers) but without following you around the internet. They seem to be doing ok as businesses, and it seems a reasonable compromise to me. I'm curious about how Telegram will decide what ads to show, how heavily it will try and personalize them; will the ads be relevant to the channel you are in or follow you around Telegram. FWIW, personally, I like the idea of a choice of ads or paid subscription best.
elastolin 6y ago
> ~1$/month, I don't do anything heavy, text messaging only Won't work. The vast majority people don't pay for messaging service, and without people, there's no messaging app. Ads are the only way forward. Will they offer an optional ad-free subscription? Maybe, but I wouldn't count on that, and it's likely to be higher than $1/month. > So, the day I get ads in Telegram I'm leaving Nobody cares.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  > Nobody cares I have stimulated many people to switch to Telegram because it is the best and all you have is to try it, realize that and motivate your friends to switch with you. Obviously many of these people will go with me once I find a better alternative. The situation probably is the same for many other people.
  - elastolin 6y ago
    > Obviously many of these people will go with me once I find a better alternative. People will go only if there's another service that's good enough and has enough user density. You may find the best privacy-oriented, ad-free messaging app, but if it's empty or if it's hard to use, it's essentially useless. By this point, it's hard to compete with the behemoths like WhatsApp or Telegram and people will not care about this nearly as much as you do. So, no, it's not 'obvious' at all.
    - qwerty456127 6y ago
      I have been told the same about Telegram just a couple of months ago. Most of the people I know have less than 10 contacts they actually care about and communicate regularly and it is not hard to convince the most of them to install an app you would sincerely recommend.
      - elastolin 6y ago
        You don't understand how hard is for a messaging app to gain traction. Telegram has been growing for years and years, and it offers some significant advantages over WhatsApp. Even with all this marketing and effort, I'd say only about 10% of my WhatsApp contacts are on Telegram. Now you want to get people to move to yet another app? For what? Why would they? Because no ads? If a new app ever manages to become big (as in, Telegram-level big, let alone WhatsApp), it would take years of raising money and marketing. And how would they pay for that exactly? You think people pay a mensual/anual fee for a messaging apps when there are free alternatives? No, the answer is, again, ads. That or selling user data, which is much worse. You're too focused on the tech, but you have no understanding of how business works.
  - skinnymuch 6y ago
    Nobody cares is an exaggeration, but correct spiritual point for the grandstanding a minority of HN users make about always leaving X or Y or never joining Z because of situations like you mentioned. Yet nothing actually changes in the real word because of how much of a niche minority these people are.