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>Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral I completely agree. In this

>Secure messaging should be free for everyone. Displaying ads alongside your private communication seems out of place, even immoral I completely agree. In this ideal situation, who pays for it? The article seems to have left this small detail out. How do you plan on getting this service to work without someone footing the bill?

avalaunch 12y ago
It wasn't left out. You must have missed it. Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram platform."
learnstats2 12y ago
The marginal cost of messaging is low enough that phone companies are happy to offer you an incredibly low cost per formerly-private communication (landline or mobile). while the marginal cost of e-mail is so low that we get tonnes of spam. Who needs to pay anything more? We already pay for the infrastructure.
harigov 12y ago
Messaging is important because it provides a person-to-person communication platform for arbitrary data. It blends in the rich interaction capabilities offered by internet with more personalized and free-form interaction offered by telephones or personal visits. Sending text messages to each other is only the first step. One can perform any kind of communication on top of messaging with proper apps. You can charge for these value added services and generate reasonable revenue.
copsarebastards 12y ago
This question is answered rather quickly when you ask two questions: 1. What exactly are people paying for? 2. Is that actually necessary for messaging? If the answer to 1 is servers, the answer to 2 is no: distributed or federated messaging is entirely reasonable and possible to do. If the answer to 1 is paid developers, the answer to 2 is no: there are plenty of developers willing to work on open source. Try it.

avalaunch 12y ago

It wasn't left out. You must have missed it. Will he continue to bankroll the business -- or does he see revenue opportunities? "We will become financially sustainable at some point," he says. "It will most likely involve third-party paid apps built on the Telegram platform."

learnstats2 12y ago

The marginal cost of messaging is low enough that phone companies are happy to offer you an incredibly low cost per formerly-private communication (landline or mobile). while the marginal cost of e-mail is so low that we get tonnes of spam. Who needs to pay anything more? We already pay for the infrastructure.

harigov 12y ago

Messaging is important because it provides a person-to-person communication platform for arbitrary data. It blends in the rich interaction capabilities offered by internet with more personalized and free-form interaction offered by telephones or personal visits. Sending text messages to each other is only the first step. One can perform any kind of communication on top of messaging with proper apps. You can charge for these value added services and generate reasonable revenue.

copsarebastards 12y ago

This question is answered rather quickly when you ask two questions: 1. What exactly are people paying for? 2. Is that actually necessary for messaging? If the answer to 1 is servers, the answer to 2 is no: distributed or federated messaging is entirely reasonable and possible to do. If the answer to 1 is paid developers, the answer to 2 is no: there are plenty of developers willing to work on open source. Try it.