Written by: TechFlow
TON, one of the most popular public chains this year, seems to have lost some steam recently.
Backed by Telegram's billions of users, the huge traffic attracts countless people to build projects and do some research on it.
But after several ecological projects were launched, people began to question Telegram's traffic.
The most common complaints we hear are that user quality is poor and there are too many bots/money-pulling parties.
The end result is that the exchange of traffic between projects is not good, or the launch effect of new projects that want to grow is not good.
Is Telegram’s traffic not real? Is there a better way to grow? Is Telegram/TON worth investing in?
This article will attempt to analyze the effective path to future growth on Telegram/TON from the perspective of Telegram’s recent development.
Telegram + Wallet, Pandora's box of business potential has been opened
Telegram’s inner demon: there are many users, but the quality of users is poor?
First of all, it is undeniable that Telegram has a large traffic volume. According to current data, by 2024, Telegram's global user base will exceed 700 million, and it currently has 950 million monthly active users, making it the third largest traffic portal after Google and Facebook.
*Charts From Statista
But from a commercial perspective, Telegram is just getting started.
First, Telegram launched a paid subscription service to provide users with more advanced features and customization options.
In addition, they also make profits through advertising in channels and groups, which can be targeted based on users' interests and behaviors. This is Telegram's current main business model.
However, this commercialization process also faces some challenges, such as:
Due to the diversity and anonymity of its user base, it is difficult to establish an accurate user portrait, which makes the precise delivery of advertisements complicated.
Telegram has always been selling its privacy and ad-free experience. How to commercialize without compromising user experience is an important issue.
Based on the above problems, whether it is the traffic owner (a group with TG traffic, such as the owner of a large group or an application with many users) or the advertiser (a group that wants to place advertisements on TG, such as a project party) they may be helpless in the face of such a huge traffic position.
Then the problem becomes that there is traffic here, but how to make good use of it is a problem to be solved.
And wallets and Mini apps may gradually change this situation.
Wallets drive the explosion of Mini apps, and Telegram’s user profile becomes clearer
First of all, we need to clarify two concepts: Telegram Wallet and Telegram Mini Apps.
Telegram Wallet: Telegram Wallet is a feature developed by Telegram. It was previously abandoned, but was later developed by the TON community. In September 2023, Telegram announced the integration of Telegram Wallet to support cryptocurrency transactions such as TON.
Telegram Mini Apps: Telegram Mini Apps were officially launched in April 2023. These apps allow developers to create and run web-based applications within Telegram.
Although Telegram Mini Apps were launched earlier, the use and development of Mini Apps have further exploded after the launch of Telegram Wallet. Although there is no official data to prove it, since Wallet provides more convenient payment and transaction functions, it will attract more users to use Mini Apps for shopping, payment and other activities.
For example, just like TOKEN 2049, TON and TADA launched a mini app not long ago, which allows users to hail a taxi directly through Telegram. Currently, the app shows that it has more than 2.8 million monthly active users.
The number of Mini Apps is still increasing. With the further popularization of Mini Apps, users can choose more types of applications, such as encrypted games, taxi apps, etc. This makes Telegram's user portrait more diverse and clear.
Through these rich application ecosystems, Telegram will be able to better understand user needs and label users.
When users can be tagged, Telegram's marketing potential is unlocked.
Google Ads/Guangdiantong for Telegram
As mentioned earlier, Telegram currently mainly provides paid subscription services and group advertising services. When user tags become more concrete, we come to the familiar Web2 traffic delivery logic, similar to Google ads and Tencent's Guangdiantong.
Google Ads and Tencent Guangdiantong are both advertising platforms that deliver targeted ads based on user data and behavior.
Google Ads provides advertisers with targeted advertising services by analyzing user search habits, browsing history, geographic location and other information.
Tencent Guangdiantong leverages the huge user base of Tencent's social network and combines users' social behaviors, interests, hobbies and usage habits to deliver precise advertising.
Advertisers can set up ads based on specific keywords and audiences, thereby improving ad conversion rates and return on investment to achieve better marketing results.
As Telegram user tags become more diverse, Telegram will also generate more similar business development opportunities. Through accurate user portraits, Telegram can provide advertisers with more efficient advertising solutions and attract more brands and companies to cooperate.
However, Telegram has not officially launched an advertising platform similar to Google Ads or Guangdiantong.
At the same time, Telegram has a natural uniqueness: since Telegram Wallet natively supports cryptocurrency payments, many mini apps can actually allow users to directly interact with cryptocurrencies and Web3 applications.
Therefore, we are not only looking for a traditional third-party platform to support the construction of Telegram's advertising ecosystem, but also a platform that can be combined with Web3 to help advertisers effectively place advertisements on Telegram.
Web2 + Web3, making traditional investment flow better
Make Telegram ads as effective as WeChat
First of all, we need to define clearly that advertising and growth are actually broad terms that cover many types, such as creativity, operations, etc. This article mainly discusses advertising on Telegram.
In the field of traditional advertising, there are mainly the following modules:
DSP (Demand-Side Platform): A system used by advertisers to purchase ad inventory/slots. Advertisers can bid in real time to select the ad slots that best match their target audience.
SSP (Supply-Side Platform): Provides publishers with tools to manage ad inventory. Connects with multiple DSPs to enable real-time bidding for ad slots.
Data attribution: The process of tracking user behavior to evaluate advertising effectiveness. By analyzing data, advertisers can understand the effectiveness of different advertising channels and optimize their delivery strategies.
Ad Network: An ad network is an intermediary that connects advertisers and publishers. It aggregates the ad inventory of multiple publishers and provides it to advertisers for centralized purchase. Ad networks usually offer a range of ad formats and delivery options.
Image source network
In the complex ecosystem of Web2 advertising, although the synergy of various modules has improved the efficiency and accuracy of advertising delivery, traditional delivery still faces some important problems.
Black box operation: During the bidding process, advertisers and traffic owners have very low transparency into the entire process, which makes it impossible for them to clearly understand the specific circumstances of the bidding.
Fake traffic problem: Although data attribution tools can help analyze advertising effectiveness and provide certain insights, the existence of fake traffic remains a serious challenge.
In fact, there are already some similar projects in the traditional advertising field in Web3, such as Spindl in the figure below, Addressable, which is an attribution platform built based on the on-chain behavior habits of Web3 users; Coinzilla, the main traffic network that integrates many crypto application advertising slots.
However, based on the special properties of Telegram, what we actually need to do is to connect the user tags on both ends of Web2 + Web3 in order to better "define Telegram users". So we discovered OpenAD, the first decentralized platform that realizes the connection of Telegram traffic Web2 + Web3 data/tags.
OpenAD, the first decentralized platform that connects TG on-chain + off-chain tags
I first came into contact with this project from a friend who told me that the results of their advertising through OpenAD were more than twice as good as those of buying ads directly through TG.
How does OpenAD do it?
In general, OpenAD uses innovative methods to embed various types of ads (banner ads, interactive ads, etc.) into mini apps, allowing your ads to be effectively exposed in different scenarios.
In this process, OpenAD acts as a middleman, connecting those who sell and buy ads.
Image source: offline event sharing
It sounds like the same as the traditional approach, but in fact, OpenAD has the following main features:
1- Label mini app users
OpenAD uses data analysis and user behavior tracking to finely label mini app users. For example, it collects information through user behavior data in the mini app (such as browsing history, click-through rate, and usage time), analyzes user interests, preferences, and behavior patterns, and ultimately builds detailed user portraits/labels.
2- Combine with Web3 to make advertising more transparent and prevent fraud
OpenAD’s advertising itself does not set up an incentive mechanism to avoid exploiting users and ensure that advertising and triggering are based on real user activities. At the same time, the design of the advertising system also increases the difficulty and cost of robot users, automated operations, and witch attacks. In addition, combined with Web3, user activities in OpenAD ads will be recorded and uploaded to the chain through smart contracts from time to time, and advertising data can be transparently traced by advertisers and publishers.
3- Form an efficient traffic network with traffic owners without user overlap
OpenAD has established cooperative relationships with traffic owners in multiple industries (such as multiple large traffic project parties) to form an efficient traffic network. At the same time, traffic owners can also integrate their own traffic resources into the OpenAD network to form a traffic exchange alliance, turning the original 1v1 BD traffic exchange relationship into a 1vN relationship to achieve better results.
This will also bring new changes to both traffic owners and advertisers, who are important in advertising.
For example, for advertisers, they were unable to identify user quality when purchasing advertisements in the past, had low selectivity, and might encounter fake traffic; for traffic owners, they wanted to monetize their traffic but it was difficult to find customers, and if they hard-wired advertisements into their products, they were worried that it would affect the existing user experience.
With the access to platforms like OpenAD, the experience of the entire ecosystem will change completely.
From the official website, we can see that, for example, BananaTV, as an advertiser, has an overall user interaction rate of 60% and a retention rate of 10% based on OpenAD's high-quality user delivery; and NOTON, as a traffic owner, can obtain higher profits for itself by selling its own traffic.
Currently, OpenAD is also launching a one-month traffic incentive campaign. For details, please refer to the official link:
https://x.com/OpenAD_Protocol/status/1859126324436041758
Mutual success with Web3 will make Telegram’s advertising ecosystem more prosperous
The evolution of the advertising ecosystem is inseparable from the advancement of technology. As a rapidly developing social platform, Telegram is also actively exploring the integration with Web3 technology, which will surely promote the prosperity of its advertising ecosystem.
Compared with other platforms, Telegram has unique characteristics, but this does not mean that Telegram will be separated from other ecosystems.
Just like the previous Web3 growth-related projects, OpenAD, as an emerging advertising platform, will not only be limited to Telegram traffic in the future, but will also be able to integrate data from other platforms. This cross-platform integration allows advertisers to target a wider range of user groups. Through projects such as OpenAD, Telegram can also complement other social media and applications, gain a more comprehensive understanding of user interests and behaviors, and build a rich advertising ecosystem infrastructure.
By integrating with Web3, Telegram can provide users with richer application scenarios and interactive experiences. When using mini apps, users can see ads related to their interests, further enhancing the effectiveness and fun of ads.
The multi-faceted cooperation of Telegram + Mini App + Web3 makes us expect that the future of Telegram’s advertising ecosystem will be more prosperous.
