Social media giant Telegram announced on the 6th the launch of an in-app currency called Telegram Stars, which allows users to purchase Stars through Apple and Google’s in-app purchases, buy Stars with fiat currency, and then use them to purchase digital products in Telegram’s mini-applications such as Notcoin.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated that Telegram Stars is a way for users to quickly pay in mini-applications, such as Notcoin, without the need for installation. With Telegram Stars, the simplest payment method can now be used to accept user payments.
In essence, Telegram Stars aims to provide a unified point system for the platform’s numerous bots and mini-applications to more easily receive payments from Telegram’s over 9 billion users.
Regarding fees from purchases on other platforms, Pavel Durov explained that Telegram Stars will comply with Apple and Google’s digital product sales policies. The recent trend of mini-applications has made Telegram a major venue for launching new applications, and Stars and advertising subsidies will elevate the mini-application trend to a new level unprecedented in the history of social media.
Furthermore, Pavel Durov added that developers can exchange the Stars they receive for TON through the Fragment trading market. Perhaps motivated by this, the TON token began to steadily rise on the 6th, with a reported price of $7.57 at the time of writing, an increase of nearly 6% in the past 24 hours.