🍆False Start for TON Foundation Ahead of U.S. Market Entry

TON Foundation has, in a sense, made a false start into the U.S. market, as the initial focus should have been on energizing and onboarding the CIS audience — something that has been somewhat overlooked.

Yes, we've seen some regional activities, but nothing viral or outstanding involving celebrities from CIS. Just think of the effect influencers like Evelone or Zloy can create. Why not support CIS media figures? Their audiences can not only “buy a gift” but actually join the Telegram ecosystem and start to use TON.

It doesn’t have to be all about the gifts hype. The focus could be on games, trading (frankly, also a hype), and opportunities for developers and founders.

Once the CIS market is sufficiently developed, the organic pull of Western users will multiply many times over. The current strategies — creating a Snoop Dogg channel, dropping hay packets, and similar moves with French Montana — amount to nothing more than a “dead cat bounce.”

There is no onboarding for newcomers: no educational materials, no community chats or groups for “landing” users — nothing at all.

Note that Telegram, unlike other social networks and messengers, doesn’t have algorithms that instantly surface random channel posts in feeds. Users who do join Telegram will only see their idol’s channel, contacts who once registered, and ads (unless they’ve purchased Telegram Premium).

Buying a gift for a celebrity — which is most common in the CIS market anyway — is not onboarding into Telegram, and certainly not into TON.

It’s simply a waste of money, time, and resources in a misguided attempt to buy the loyalty of Western audiences.

Your realist, @TonPost