💰 Ten days ago, a developer launched a mini app that has already generated $500,000 in revenue. He built it in just two days during the time off from his main job.

🖌 Without a team or marketing budget, he single-handedly implemented everything — design, concept, client-side code, and server-side code. Inspired by my own solo journey when I created VK in 2006, he tackled every element himself.

📈 Thanks to its brilliant concept and minimalist design, his mini app went viral. For the past ten days, it’s ranked in the Top 4 grossing mini apps on Telegram. This is the power of hard work, determination, and the Telegram mini app platform! #️⃣

⭐️ The @Major mini app is one of my favorite success stories in the Telegram ecosystem. Launched by @Roxman, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, Major earned over $10 million in revenue and gained 70 million users in just 5 months 📈

⭐️ I like Major because it’s quick to adopt the new possibilities of the mini app platform and adds features that feel like they naturally belong in Telegram. And I like @Roxman, who I’ve followed since before he launched @Fabrika and @Major 🤝

🫴 Roxman generously donated 1% of $MAJOR tokens to me, which I won’t be selling for the next 10 years. I hear the Major team has many innovations in the pipeline (like username NFT rentals and digital IDs). And tomorrow is a big day for them — their $MAJOR token is getting listed on six big exchanges 📆

⭐️ Let’s wish them good luck! 💫

🧑‍💻 Over the past few years, our moderation team has been working tirelessly to keep Telegram safe. Each month they removed about 1 million channels and groups, along with over 10 million users who violated our rules. These impressive results were made possible thanks to your reports, as well as our automated detection systems and AI-powered tools 😵

🤫 However, much of this work remained behind the scenes. The public wasn’t fully aware of the extent of our moderation efforts, and media outlets often relied on outdated information from parts of our website that hadn’t been updated in a decade 🕷

🖥 To address this, we’ve launched a new section on our website: telegram.org/moderation. This page highlights the incredible work our moderators have done over the years and offers a transparent overview of our ongoing commitment to keeping Telegram safe 🧹

🤝 The Affiliate Platform we launched this month is an instant hit. Its goal is to let users and channels earn Stars by inviting people to mini apps. In just 12 days, 15,000 affiliate programs were created, and 4 million users got referred to mini apps 📈

😇 The Affiliate Platform gives channels and mini apps what they need most: channel owners earn revenue, while mini app developers gain new users. Unlike similar systems, Telegram's Affiliate Platform is transparent and guarantees instant commissions each time a referred user makes a transaction in a mini app🪙

😺 Above all, it’s simple. Anyone can start or join an affiliate program on Telegram. You can view existing affiliate programs in “My Stars” in Settings (choose “Earn Stars”). Or just check out what it looks like in the video below 🍿

🔍 Earlier this month, we launched AI-powered sticker search. We added search tags to all 40,000+ stickers created by Telegram artists over the past 10 years. As a result, the new search supports multiple keywords in 34 languages, helping you find the perfect sticker — or emoji, if you’re a Premium user ⭐️

😏 But this is just the beginning. Next month, the sticker tab will also let you search through millions of popular custom stickers uploaded by our users 😏

💡 Stickers have been one of the many innovations that define Telegram. AI-powered search will make discovering them easier than ever 🔭

🔮 As I predicted, 2024 turned out to be a very good year for Telegram. For the first time in its 3-year history of monetization, Telegram became profitable 🏆

📈 This year, the number of Telegram Premium subscribers tripled, exceeding 12 million. Our ad revenue also increased a few times. As a result, Telegram's total revenue in 2024 surpassed $1 billion, and we are closing the year with more than $500 million in cash reserves, not including crypto assets 🪙

🏦 Over the past four years, Telegram has issued about $2 billion in debt. We repaid a meaningful share of it this Fall, taking advantage of favorable prices for the Telegram bonds. But there’s a lot of work ahead 👨‍💻

↗️ Our innovations in monetization this year (⭐️ Stars, 🎁 Gifts, 🪙 Giveaways, 🖥 Mini Apps, 🤝 the Affiliate Platform, 💼 Telegram Business, and 📥 Telegram Gateway…) demonstrate that social media platforms can achieve financial sustainability while staying independent and respecting users' rights.

🎯 The purpose of monetization is to ensure that you, our users, will always remain our #️⃣1️⃣ priority 🫂

🍌 Access to certain Russian media has been restricted in the EU under DSA/sanctions laws 🇪🇺

🔉 Meanwhile, all Western media Telegram channels remain freely accessible in Russia 🇷🇺

🤔 Who would have thought that in 2025 Russian Telegram users would enjoy more freedom than European? ❓

🆒 We planned an epic New Year’s Eve update with unique gifts for our users. Unfortunately, it’s been stuck in Apple’s review process for a few days, and we still have no response from them. Thanks for your patience — and happy 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣5️⃣

🐵 Humans are hardwired to copy others by evolution — for a good reason. Mimicking those around us has been the most efficient survival strategy for millions of years. However, the world is different today. We now live in an age of rapid change — what used to be efficient becomes a recipe for mediocrity and decay ☠️

🥂 Let 2025 be the year we rely on our own opinions — not imposed stereotypes and outdated thought patterns. Only by trusting our instincts and following our own unique paths can we fulfil our potential and make great contributions to the world 🎨

🎆 Have a happy and productive 2025, everyone! 🚩

🎁 Launched just three months ago, Telegram gifts have become an internet sensation. This holiday season alone, Telegram users exchanged a record-breaking 20 million gifts 🎁🎁🎁

📰 On January 1st, we introduced the ability to transform limited-edition gifts into unique collectibles. These can be transferred within Telegram and externally as NFTs. Minting a unique gift costs just 25 Stars, which is spent on the TON blockchain fees required to mint the NFT 🎁🎁🎁

🏆 Our artists have designed countless versions of 21 limited-edition gifts and are already working on the next 25. The level of artistic effort invested in this project has been incredible. We got so carried away that, for some gifts, we ended up paying our artists more than the revenue they generated 🎁🎁🎁

💵 I hear that third-party NFT marketplaces are already working on enabling auctions for minted Telegram gifts. It will be exciting to see how this ecosystem evolves 🎁🎁🎁

🧐 I’m proud that Telegram has supported freedom of speech long before it became politically safe to do so. Our values don’t depend on US electoral cycles.

😂 Today, other platforms are announcing they’ll now have less censorship. But the real test of their newly discovered values will come once the political winds change again. It’s easy to say you support something when you risk nothing.