Telegram isn't being ignored - it's being correctly avoided by anyone who values their brand equity. The whole "open rates are crazy" argument is marketing fluff. Of course open rates are high when you're sliding into someone's DMs uninvited. That's like bragging your voicemail gets 90% listen rates when you're leaving them on people's personal phones.
The real problem with Telegram for B2B lead gen is simple: trust is asymmetric. A cold email sits in a separate inbox where people expect noise. A cold Telegram message feels like a violation. You're competing with their actual friends and family. That's not "lower friction", that's higher creep factor. Most buyers in SaaS won't engage unless you've already got context - which means Telegram is just a delivery mechanism for communities you've already built, not a standalone channel.
Also, the "spam ceiling" argument is spot on, but it's worse than people admit. Once a Telegram group or channel gets saturated with self-promoters, the entire ecosystem turns to garbage. Unlike email, there's no decent filtering. You can't train an algorithm to ignore it because there's no algorithm.
Where it works? Sure, crypto, trading, creators, and education - markets where the audience is already conditioned to live inside Telegram for everything. But for B2B SaaS targeting North American decision-makers? It's a distraction. email, LinkedIn, and targeted ads still scale. Telegram is a niche tool dressed up as a revolution.
