Telegram’s Mini Apps initiative has secured substantial funding to advance its integration of Web3 technologies into the messaging platform. Bitget Wallet and Foresight Ventures have committed $20 million (roughly Rs. 168 crore) to drive the growth of Telegram’s Mini Apps, as reported by CoinTelegraph on Monday, November 11. As of July 2024, Telegram reported that 500 million of its 950 million global users engaged with Mini Apps each month.
The funding is intended to support the expansion of the Telegram Mini Apps ecosystem, enabling it to develop a strategic roadmap for growth and to continue offering Web3 games with crypto and NFT features to its global user base for enhanced in-app entertainment.
As per CoinTelegraph, Bitget Wallet has offered to let Web3 app makers use its own developer’s kit to make more games and services that integrate Web3 into Telegram’s interface. The developer kit is called OmniConnect and it was launched in September this year.
Web3 developers will also have opportunities to collaborate with existing Mini Apps to expand their game offerings under established brands. Launched in 2023, Telegram’s Mini Apps allow developers to build in-app applications using languages like HTML and JavaScript, making these apps accessible through Telegram’s app store.
Telegram reportedly informed CoinTelegraph that offering this in-app development feature was a natural progression, driven by developers’ demand for creating more sophisticated applications. These developers leverage the Telegram-affiliated TON blockchain to design and launch Web3 apps and games.
“TON Blockchain is the obvious choice to integrate when you consider the scale of some of these applications. Notcoin quickly gained 40 million users, while Hamster Kombat has around 300 million players,” the report quoted Alena Shmalko, ecosystem lead of the TON Foundation as saying.
The Web3 engine of TON gives Telegram’s platform a competitive advantage, opening up new monetisation opportunities for creators, and empowering users with genuine ownership of their digital assets.”
Dogs, Hamster Kombat, and Notcoin have recently emerged as some of the most popular names on Telegram Mini Apps, quickly gaining traction among Telegram users.
For Bitget, this investment in Telegram’s Web3 unit could serve as a strategy to encourage more developers to utilise its developer tools. The platform claimed that it had over 12 million monthly active users in September. The same month, Bitget and Foresight Ventures had announced an investment of $30 million into TON blockchain.