Author: Brayden Lindrea, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance

Social messaging platform Telegram has launched “Telegram Stars,” a new in-app token that can be used to purchase digital goods and services on the platform.

“With Telegram Stars, mini programs can now accept payments for digital services using the simplest payment method – in-app purchases on Android and iOS,” the company’s CEO Pavel Durov said in a June 6 Telegram post.

Developers can redeem their Stars for Toncoin (TON) — the native cryptocurrency that powers Telegram’s “Open Network” — through Fragment, a platform primarily used to buy and sell Telegram usernames.

“They can also use Stars to further promote their apps on Telegram,” Durov added.

Source: Pavel Durov

Durov said Telegram will subsidize ads bought using Stars on Apple and Google, which will take a 30% commission on digital product sales.

Durov believes that this will financially incentivize developers to build digital products on Telegram:

“If developers reinvested Stars in promoting their app, the overall commission would be close to 0%. Therefore, publishing an app on Telegram makes more economic sense than publishing a traditional mobile app.”

“Future updates will bring additional features and functionality to Stars — like gifting content creators and more,” Telegram said in a June 6 post.

Telegram has achieved great success with Notcoin, one of the platform’s most popular apps, amassing 35 million users within the first five months of its launch.

Notcoin is a “click to earn” token where users earn NOT tokens by completing various social challenges.

More than 400 million of Telegram’s 900 million users interact with Telegram bots and applets every month.

In April, Telegram launched Tether (USDT) on the TON blockchain as part of a partnership with stablecoin issuers to drive greater cryptocurrency adoption through the messaging platform.

“[Users] no longer have to overcome the hurdle of acquiring different types of cryptocurrencies or tokens,” noted Justin Hyun, investment director at the TON Foundation.

About 36 hours ago, TON hit an all-time high of $7.65, but has since fallen back to $7.50, according to CoinGecko. However, its market cap of $18.2 billion is still $7 billion below its peak of $25.2 billion reached on April 12.