The bot age is on full swing and it has been accelerated by the likes of Telegram Messenger who introduced their platform on June last year. They have improved it over time by introducing inline bots that are embedded right into your text box so that it is easy to request for a service and with their major Bots 2.0 update.
Telegram has gone further to make sure they are ahead of the curve on having the best bot platform by announcing a contest to developers where the founder, Pavel Durov will give away a million dollars.
To be clear, Telegram insists that not one developer will get the full million dollars but developers will receive grants which will start at $25,000 when they make a bot using Telegram’s Bot API. Telegram also insists that the bots need to be fast, preferably work in inline mode and should be useful to the users out there. They don’t mind if you port the bot to other platforms but they expect you as the developer to make sure it works well inside the Telegram ecosystem.
Regarding the prizes, Telegram revealed that they will issue them in “batches” throughout the year and the deadline to submit is December 31st. When submitting, you need to include the bot’s username and add the hashtag #BotsPrize so that it is easy for them to find the bot.
Social networking companies have seen the need to invest in a bot platform due to the increased interest and the need to keep these people engaged on their platforms. This was made official when Facebook made the grand entry to this new trend by introducing Bots for Messenger. Telegram has the advantage when compared to its bigger competitor and it may have to work very hard to be competitive in this interesting trend for the industry. If you want to check more details about the competition, check them over here on Telegram’s blog.
