Telegram：11年没有风投，然后2024年收入14亿美元，首次盈利

做的是什么生意

Free cloud messaging app for private chats, groups and channels, used by more than 950 million people a month; it makes money through advertising, a $5-a-month Premium tier and ecosystem partnerships.

启动资金：Durov sold a $300M VKontakte stake in 2014 to fund Telegram's early years; the company later issued roughly $2.4B of bonds over four years instead of selling equity.

起因

Pavel Durov co-founded Telegram in 2013 after leaving Russia, funding the app with the proceeds of his VKontakte stake. The bet was that a fast, private messenger with heavy encryption would win users worldwide if it stayed free and independent.

经过

Telegram grew for nearly a decade with no sales team before switching on monetization: advertising on large channels and a Premium subscription launched in 2022. In December 2024 Durov said revenue had passed $1B for the year, with 12M Premium subscribers and more than $500M in cash reserves; an investor presentation later seen by the Financial Times put full-year revenue at $1.4B and net profit at $540M, against a $173M loss in 2023.

结果

Profitable and independent as of May 2025: first annual profit, $1.4B of revenue, about $2.4B of bonds outstanding and an IPO still on the table when market conditions allow.

可借鉴之处

当创始人拥有资产负债表时，延迟变现是可行的：Telegram靠自筹资金和债券发展了十年，然后将10亿用户变现为14亿美元收入。