Last June, messaging platform Telegram launched a premium service that offered a host of intuitive features for a monthly fee. And it followed that by unveiling a couple of features for premium users including an endless menu of infinite reaction emojis, as well as new emoji statuses for profile.
And now, in what seems like a desperate throw of dice to make the premium service work, Telegram has reduced its monthly subscription fee in India for from Rs 469 to Rs 179.
India is one of the key markets for Telegram, which has over 700 million monthly active users globally.
Telegram's gameplan
In India, Telegram lags behind the Meta-owned WhatsApp, which has a subscription base of over 500 million. Telegram has just around 120 million users. It launched its premium service world-over in a bid to monetise its user base that had grown in the aftermath of WhatsApp's privacy update fiasco last year. The premium offering comes with an option to organise the chats in a better way. Premium users can pin up to 10 chats in the main list, join up to 1000 channels and connect up to 4 accounts. Users also have an option to organise their chats in up to 20 folders each holding up to 200 chats.
The premium tier also increases the maximum size of file transfer and allows users to transfer files with up to 4GB in size compared to 2GB as available earlier.
In case the recipient of this large file is on Telegram Premium, they can download it faster as the premium tier does not limit the download speed for attached media and files. While means that not only premium users can share large files but people will be able to download them instantly as well.
Premium subscribers are not subject to any advertisements in public channels and get access to unique animated reactions and premium stickers which are being be regularly updated.
The word from the market is that its premium service has not taken off in the way it was intended. But Telegram sees potential for its premium offering in India. Hence, in a message sent to its users in the country, the platform announced the discount in subscription fees. This is meant for India alone. For the record, Telegram Premium, costs between $4.99 to $6 in other countries.
