TON and Telegram: Building a 'Global WeChat' with Asia-Focused Growth

Last year, TON emerged as a significant player in the cryptocurrency industry. This role was further solidified at the beginning of this year, as TON became the sole designated blockchain infrastructure for Telegram mini-apps. The two parties collaborated to propose an ambitious vision to onboard 30% of Telegram's billion users onto the TON blockchain by 2028.

While the TON ecosystem hasn't seen the same level of hype as last year, it continues to witness the emergence of various hotspots, driven by this deep "binding." Among the most notable is "Telegram Gifts," related to digital collectibles (similar to QQ Show). In July of this year, hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg transformed his personal image into a limited-edition Gift, with nearly a million copies selling out in 30 minutes, generating approximately $12 million in sales. Telegram founder Pavel Durov publicly described these Gifts as "social network-native NFTs," rather than profile pictures traditionally circulated solely within the crypto community.

Additionally, TON continues to advance in payments, retail DeFi, wealth management, RWA, and AI, focusing on social products and IP, while upgrading Mini App capabilities. The trajectory of Telegram and TON is often compared to a "global WeChat," and in this narrative, the Asia-Pacific region is crucial: it deeply understands the "WeChat growth model" and knows how to combine mini-programs, payments, and social interaction to operate a closed commercial loop.

PANews recently interviewed John, head of the TON Foundation in Asia-Pacific, about how he led the first batch of Chinese-speaking teams into the TON ecosystem, and the progress made in the areas of payments, DeFi, digital identity collectibles, RWA, and AI. John also mentioned that regarding support for startup teams, TON actually has a complete set of phased support systems, internally called the "Service Triangle," from early-stage projects to teams that can scale.

John: Starting from Scratch with TON Foundation

John joined the TON Foundation approximately three years ago, taking responsibility for the Asia-Pacific region. All Chinese-related work was built from scratch by him and his team. In the past, John worked at a large internet company in investment and innovation, with a multidisciplinary background. During that period, he studied sectors such as e-commerce, short films, social media, and even the online education industry. Due to work requirements, he also fully experienced and studied the WeChat ecosystem.

"In fact, that WeChat ecosystem created many unicorn startups, and even some that eventually became very large global companies. The most typical example is Pinduoduo, as well as Yunji Weidian, Shuidi, Youzan, and Weimeng, which were later listed on the New York Stock Exchange," John added.

"This experience is actually one of the important reasons why I later joined the TON ecosystem," John revealed. At that time, he felt that the TON ecosystem might have certain similarities with the