Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced that users of the chat platform who have personal accounts can now convert them to business accounts by paying a monthly fee.
This allows users to add information such as location and business hours, which can be useful for café and small shop owners.
Other features of a business account include hosting conversations with colorful stickers, using automated welcome messages, and shortcuts for quick replies.
“This week we launched the first Telegram business features,” Durov said. Users can now convert personal accounts to business accounts through the platform. You can add location and business hours, organize chats with colorful stickers, and use automatic greetings and shortcuts for quick replies. "
He added: “We plan to add more business account features this month. One feature is expected to revolutionize the way people interact with chatbots. Business accounts can seamlessly add chatbots, which act as invisible assistants to answer all or specific parts of your conversations. "
With these new features, Telegram is trying to compete with WhatsApp Business, which exceeded 200 million monthly active users last year.
The main difference is that Telegram charges a subscription fee for using business features, while WhatsApp relies on the type and frequency of chat to generate revenue.
Last year, Meta-owned WhatsApp offered businesses a range of features, including personalized customer messaging and the ability to conduct e-commerce transactions without leaving the app.
Over the past two years, Telegram has focused on growing its business through premium subscriptions, self-hosted cryptocurrency wallets, and premium username auctions.
Telegram, which has more than 800 million users worldwide, also plans to launch its advertising platform this month and introduce a channel revenue sharing program.