Russian comedian sells Telegram channel after just two months…for $20,500

Russian comedian Artur Chaparyan has sold his Telegram channel for 1.2m rubles ($20,500) only two months after its launch. Though the buyer remains anonymous, both the founder and Chaparyan have confirmed the sale of Byvshaya (Your Ex-Girlfriend) channel, which features posts from a fictional character about missing her ex-boyfriend.

Byvshaya, which was created on 12 June, amassed an incredible 30,000 followers in its first two weeks after launching, outdoing popular mainstream media channels such as RT and TV Rain. In May of this year, Russian authorities threatened to close down the app after it refused to hand over data to the government.

Chaparyan told vc.ru that the reason for the sale was that “he got tired and chose the money”, and added that the buyer was someone who professionally promotes Telegram channels. “He monetises it more successfully than I do because that’s what he does,” he said.

At the point of sale on 29 August, the Telegram channel had amassed nearly 80,000 followers. Meanwhile the Medialogiya monitoring company named Byvshaya as the most-viewed Telegram channel in July with 290,000 average views per post.

The buyer, who goes by the name of Yura Korb, has said he plans to keep the channel’s original content but wants to “monetise the project more effectively”. Byvshaya is just one channel within his wider portfolio that allegedly brings in 500,000 rubles ($8,600) of advertising revenue per month.

Source: The Moscow Times