Telegram messaging app to launch pay-for services in 2021

Representative image/Credit: iStock images

Messaging app Telegram will launch pay-for services in 2021, its Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said Wednesday, as the growing company needed "at least a few hundred million dollars per year".

"Telegram will begin to generate revenue, starting next year," he said in a statement. "We will be able to launch countless new features and welcome billions of new users."