Telegram is dealing with a tricky yr financially regardless of bringing in $342.5 million in income for 2023 because it additionally reported an working lack of $108 million.
This information comes sizzling on the heels of Pavel Durov’s arrest in France, the place he’s accused of not doing sufficient to regulate unlawful content material on the platform.
With free speech debates raging, the monetary figures paint an image of an organization more and more reliant on cryptocurrency to maintain the lights on.
Telegram’s financials, lately leaked, present a heavy dependence on crypto transactions, which now make up a giant slice of its earnings. Included within the British Virgin Islands, with a significant working arm within the UAE, Telegram is clearly betting massive on digital belongings.
The monetary report, audited by PwC in Dubai, reveals that the corporate booked a modest acquire of $500,000 from revaluing digital belongings in its revenue and loss (PnL) account. Nevertheless, $86 million acquire was recorded below different complete earnings.
Wanting nearer at Telegram’s earnings, it’s clear that two new income streams are propping up the numbers: the “built-in pockets” and “sale of collectibles.” Collectively, these account for greater than 40% of the corporate’s income.
The built-in pockets, launched simply final yr, is a software program software that lets customers retailer, ship, obtain, and commerce crypto belongings instantly inside the app.
As of the top of 2023, the worth of Telegram’s crypto belongings was practically $400 million, a lot greater than the corporate’s money reserves.
The corporate’s accounts additionally reveal some attention-grabbing related-party transactions. Pavel himself bought $64 million in Telegram’s convertible bonds final yr, displaying a excessive degree of private funding within the firm.
He additionally purchased $300,000 value of Telegram Premium subscriptions for giveaways, utilizing Toncoins to make the acquisition.
Whereas the corporate remains to be 100% owned by Durov, it has additionally raised over $2.3 billion by way of convertible bonds from some massive gamers—sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and tech-focused buyers.
Whether or not or not that technique will probably be sufficient to counterbalance the numerous losses stays to be seen.
