On December 23rd, 2020, Pavel Durov posted to his channel that the company would need to start generating revenue. In early 2021, he added that any advertising on the platform would not use user data for targeting, and that it would be focused on โlarge one-to-many channels.โ He pledged that ads would be โnon-intrusiveโ and that most users would simply not notice any change. Also in the latest update is the ability for users to create a unique @username from the Settings page, providing others with an easy way to contact them via Search or their t.me/username link without sharing their phone number. He adds: "Telegram has become my primary news source." On Feb. 27, however, he admitted from his Russian-language account that "Telegram channels are increasingly becoming a source of unverified information related to Ukrainian events." Perpetrators of such fraud use various marketing techniques to attract subscribers on their social media channels.
from ru