In less than six months after the popular instant messaging service debuted the subscription option and began a real concentrated attempt to monetise the business, Telegram Premium has garnered over 1 million customers.

A status update was sent by Pavel Durov on Tuesday via the Telegram channel, where he proclaimed the achievement to be “one of the most successful instances of a social media subscription plan ever implemented.”

He also expressed hope that Premium will one day generate as much income as advertisements despite the fact that the subscription “represents barely a portion of Telegram’s entire revenue.”

Over 700 million people use the app on a monthly basis, and in late June, they introduced a paid upgrade called Premium that gives users access to new capabilities including larger file sizes and quicker download speeds. Subscriptions cost roughly $6 per month in the United States and the United Kingdom, but only $2.2 in developing countries like India.

Durov stated late last month that the Dubai-based company would increase its monetization efforts by creating a variety of decentralised tools, such as non-custodial wallets and exchanges.

Telegram’s ability to maintain its current features and roll out new ones is contingent on its ability to generate enough revenue to cover the costs of its servers, traffic, and employees. He blogged about the app on Tuesday, saying, “While some other applications see their users as a tool to maximise money, we see revenue as a means to increase value for our customers.”