Telegram launches digital mini-app payment system, Telegram Stars

Pavel Durov, CEO of the messaging platform Telegram, announced a new payment system for digital goods and services on Thursday. 

The platform introduced Telegram Stars, which allows users to pay for digital services via in-app purchases on iOS and Android. App developers can swap their stars for TON , the native token of The Open Network, via the exchange Fragment . The platform added that Telegram Stars is compliant with Apple and Google's digital product sale policies.

"Apple and Google take a 30% cut when users buy Stars from them, but Telegram will subsidize ads purchased with Telegram Stars," Durov wrote in a Telegram post. "So if developers reinvest Stars in promoting their app, the overall commission will be nearly 0%. As a result, launching apps on Telegram makes more economic sense than launching traditional mobile apps."

Notcoin NOT -3.10% , one of Telegram's popular apps, launched in January and amassed nearly 35 million players by mid-May, The Block previously reported.

TON -1.86% traded at $7.33 after experiencing a 0.47% decrease in the past 24 hours, according to The Block Prices as of 12:08 p.m. ET (16:08 UTC).