Pavel Durov, founder of telegram messenger. Telegraph is a new service from Pavel Durov. He is currently a Russian exile

The creators of Telegram have launched a new service Telegraph, a platform for publishing texts. The peculiarity of the service is that it works without an account, just go to the site and start typing texts. Posts support attachments: photos, videos, tweets, videos from YouTube or Vimeo.

This is what the telegraph looked like

Why this service? It's called a publishing tool, but there's one limitation. It will not be possible to create directories from publications; each post receives a unique address on the telegra domain. pH. The address of the material consists of its title and publication date. It is not yet very clear whether entries can be edited; most likely, this only works on the computer where it was created.

In Telegram, links appear in preview mode (Instant View), the contents of pages are visible without waiting for them to load, this is convenient. The Instant View feature itself has appeared in the new version of Telegram, so update the application.

P.S. Each post receives a serial number at the end of the address, you can see the work of other people by selecting the numbers. It’s not very safe, so it’s better not to post trade secrets in Telegraph, they might get stolen.

Who is Pavel Durov really? This question has been of interest to many since the creation of the VKontakte social network, but the fact is that Pavel never really talks about his personality and information about him is collected from Pavel's few interviews and posts on social networks. Not so long ago, CNN Money published an article about Pavel Durov, where journalist Sarah Ashley O'Brien tells 10 facts about him that she knows, and the public translated this article into Russian.

You can read the full text below.

Pavel Durov is the elusive founder of the Telegram app he founded in full swing.

Telegram, based in Berlin, competes with Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp. Using two-layer encryption, the app claims to be "faster and more secure" than other instant messaging services.

Users can message friends and send files, create group chats with up to 200 people, or "choose special Secret Chats" where messages self-destruct.

ISIS terrorists are turning to encrypted modern apps like Telegram to communicate. Laith Alkoury, director of research at Flashpoint Global Partners, called him "the hot new thing among jihadists."
But who is Pavel Durov, the 31-year-old founder of the app? Here's what we know.

1. He is often referred to as “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg.”

Before Telegram, he founded the popular Russian social network VKontakte (VK) in 2006, which serves as an alternative to Facebook in Russia.

2. He is currently a Russian exile.

He chose to leave his home country in 2014, refusing to comply with requests from the Russian government to provide data from Ukrainian VKontakte users.

3. He once offered a job to Edward Snowden.

In 2013, when Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum, Durov offered him a position as a security software developer for VKontakte. At the time, Durov was full of pride for his country: “at such moments you feel proud of our country and regret the course chosen by the United States - a country that betrays the principles on which it was once built,” he said. He also called Snowden his personal hero.

4. He thinks other instant messaging apps suck.

That's why Pavel and his brother Nikolai launched Telegram in 2013. “The truth is, it doesn’t matter how many different messaging apps there are if they all suck,” he said at TechCrunch Disrupt in September.

5. He is more concerned about privacy threats than terrorism.

"If you look at the situation statistically and put aside emotions for a second ... the likelihood that you or I will die as a result of terrorist actions is almost zero," Durov told CNN International's Erin McLaughlin in September. “The chance of being in a car accident is millions of times greater than the chance of being harmed by a terrorist attack.”

6. He believes that the benefits of providing private communication outweigh the costs.

Following reports that ISIS terrorists were using Telegram to communicate, the company said it had blocked 78 channels in 12 languages ​​associated with ISIS. Personal communications between ISIS members were not affected. But this does not mean that encryption is bad.

"We think that providing a secure means of communication like this for the 99.99% of people who have nothing to do with terrorism means more than the threat we see on the other side," Durov McLaughlin said, adding that it is impossible to limit the spread encryption.

“Terrorists will always find means for secure communications,” Pavel said.

7. He believes that "the French government is as responsible as ISIS" for the Paris attacks.

Durov wrote that French "policy and carelessness... led to tragedy." He said the government was taking its people's money through "outrageously high taxes" to spend on "fighting useless wars."

They say that it is bad to count other people's money. But how can one not do this when we are talking about a genius businessman who, at the age of 32, made it into the top 100 richest businessmen in Russia? So today we'll count Pavel Durov's condition- one of the most famous dollar millionaires in Russia and the creator of Telegram.

Durov's first money

It is interesting that Durov never worked anywhere on a permanent basis. At the same time, he does not consider VKontakte and Telegram to be work. As Pavel admitted in an interview, this is too interesting to call it work.

During his student days, Durov worked as a freelancer: he created websites, wrote articles, and organized events. In addition, he won large grants several times: scholarships from the President of Russia, the Government of Russia, Vladimir Potanin.

While still a student, Durov developed several programs to improve the social life of the university. For example, he created the electronic library Durov.com with university coursework. Another of his projects, the student forum Spbgu.ru, became the prototype of the VKontakte social network.

Later, Durov realized that forums where everyone hides behind nicknames have no future. He came up with the idea of ​​creating a resource where people would use real names and photographs and add information about themselves. The project was called “Student.ru”, later it was renamed “VKontakte” so that graduates could also use the service. Thus began Durov’s path to a multimillion-dollar fortune.

Durov's salary on VKontakte

During the existence of VKontakte, Durov’s payment increased 218 times. He received his first salary - a little more than 26 thousand rubles - at the beginning of 2007 as general director. After the probationary period, Durov’s salary increased to 115 thousand rubles, and in 2008 it was increased to 345 thousand. In 2013, Durov already received 5.76 million rubles.

In 2014, Russian media published news about an inspection carried out at the request of shareholders on VKontakte. It was reported that Durov in 2012-2013. spent about 273 million rubles from the company budget for personal needs. It also turned out that Durov set his own salary and issued multimillion-dollar bonuses every month. It was clarified that during the year he wrote out 8 bonuses for himself in the amount of about 28 million rubles.

Later, the executive director of VKontakte, Dmitry Sergeev, denied this information. According to him, Durov did not appoint himself a salary, and his salaries grew in proportion to the development of the company.

Durov's first billion

In 2011, Durov became a ruble billionaire - then his fortune was estimated at 8 billion rubles. By that time, he occupied 350th place in the list of the richest people in Russia. From that moment on, Pavel began to constantly flicker in the Forbes lists, including the magazine called him the best Runet startup.

In the same year, the idea of ​​the Telegram messenger was born. When the special forces came to Pavel’s door, he wrote to his brother Nikolai. At that moment, Durov realized that he needed a resource for secure communication with loved ones.

The first version of Telegram was released in 2013. In three years, the messenger managed to gather an audience of 100 million people, and it continues to grow.

Sale and dismissal from VKontakte

In January 2014, Durov sold his stake in VKontakte to Ivan Tavrin, CEO of MegaFon. According to experts, he received for his 12% from 360 to 480 million dollars.

The founder of the social network explained that his share did not allow him to influence the board of directors, but thanks to the sale, Pavel will be able to develop Telegram without third-party investors. At the same time, Durov assured that he would remain working in the company as a general director and would continue to develop VKontakte.

However, four months after the sale, in April 2014, Durov resigned from the company and emigrated from Russia. He paid $250,000 to the Sugar Fund of the Caribbean country of St. Kitts and Nevis and automatically received citizenship of that country. This gave him visa-free access to 124 countries, including Schengen countries, the UK, Singapore and Brazil.

Durov and charity

Durov spares no money for charity. So, in 2011, he founded the Start Fellows fund, which supports startups. In 2012, he donated $1 million to Wikipedia and $60 thousand to the winners of the Open World Teen Programming Championship.

Pavel’s last charitable act was an offer for developers of the best chatbots on Telegram. Durov promised from 25 thousand dollars to each author. The total amount was about a million dollars.

Pavel Durov's current state

In May 2015, VKontakte bought ICVA Ltd, which owned the main data center of the social network, from Durov. Most of the information about VK users is stored there. So Durov replenished his fortune by another 909 million rubles.

In 2016, the founder of Telegram took 135th place in the Forbes ranking, rising to 100th place within a year. By 2017, Durov’s fortune grew from 600 to 950 million dollars, that is, he now owns almost 60 billion rubles. Another hundred million and Durov will become a dollar billionaire.

Durov's main asset is Telegram, and it shows good growth year after year. For the first two years, Durov paid all expenses from his own pocket. In the summer of 2015, he said that he spends $1 million a month on the messenger. According to Pavel, several companies offered to finance the project, but he prefers to spend his own funds on development.

In the summer of 2015, Telegram launched an open platform for creating bots that can interact with external services and applications. In the spring of 2017, Telegram got its own. You can pay via Apple Pay or Android Pay. What is important, Telegram does not take a commission for payments: bot developers take the entire income.

So Durov is introducing his own business model, which is not focused on maximum profit - unlike most commercial projects. The creator of the messenger said that the Telegram team plans to earn exactly the amount that will be needed for equipment, transportation and salaries for “the best developers in the world.” When it will start bringing in that kind of money remains in question.

Analysts estimate the messenger at $1 billion - that's exactly how much Google was willing to pay. Durov himself named the amount at 3-4 billion dollars, citing recent proposals for sale. However, he is not going to sell his brainchild.

At the beginning of 2018, Telegram finally began to monetize thanks to the launch of an ICO and the release of its own. As a result of the Pre-Sale, $1.5 billion of investments were attracted, even before the official start of the ICO itself. The release of the Gram currency will make Telegram a profitable project. All relevant information about the development of Durov’s blockchain system is published in the channel

14 min. reading

Updated: 01/21/2019

One of the biggest challenges is to be yourself in a world that tries to make you like everyone else.

Paul Valerievich Durov (born October 10, 1984, Leningrad) – Russian businessman, programmer, developer and co-founder of the social network VKontakte, led VKontakte as CEO from 2006 to 2014, currently the founder and CEO of the Telegram messenger.

At the age of 31, Mr. Durov entered the Forbes ranking of “Russia’s 200 Richest Businessmen.” They like to call him a “ruble billionaire,” but this data is almost out of date: Mr. Durov is approaching a new title – “ dollar billionaire". From 2016 to 2017, his capital increased from $600 million to $950 million. Now he is in the TOP 100 “richest people in Russia 2017” at position 100 (Forbes).

Pavel is handling millions, but we are not just talking about millions of rubles and dollars. He created a digital country with a multi-million population (over 100 million users), giving life to the VKontakte resource.

How many smart boys from intelligent families become millionaires? What helped Pavel to use his mind correctly, open his own business and achieve success? The biography of Pavel Durov will tell us about this.

Family and childhood of Pavel Durov

Durov Pavel Valerievich was born on October 10, 1984 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).

One of his great-grandfathers was a nobleman, the other a farmer, both subsequently lost their property.

The head of the Durov family, Valery Semenovich, Doctor of Philology, headed the department at St. Petersburg State University. Mother, Albina Aleksandrovna, grew up in Omsk, where she learned their language from German settlers. Having moved to Leningrad, she easily entered the journalism department. The grown-up Pasha admits that he is grateful to his father and mother for their upbringing, his parents “ set an example of optimism and hard work even in difficult times for our family.”

Pavel was the youngest in the family; his mother had two more sons: Mikhail (from his first marriage, he was an adult and lived separately) and Nikolai (born in 1980). It was Nikolai who set a worthy example for little Pavlik. The older brother grew up as a smart little boy, at the age of 3 he read “Popular Astronomy”, and at 7 he “clicked” cubic equations. Pasha was gifted in a different way, he often drew pictures of guests at home and deftly caught the similarities.

In 2015, on Twitter, congratulating his father on his anniversary, Durov Jr. noted:

My father taught me and my brother the values ​​of perseverance, honesty and hard work

Hard work and determination are important qualities of a successful person.

Studying in primary schools

Pavel Durov changed four schools. When his father was offered to teach Russian in Turin, the family moved to Italy. Pasha was taken away a few months later, and before that his grandmother took him to a regular Leningrad school.

From 1990 to 1992, Pasha studied at the Coppino-Falletti di Barolo school (Turin), and upon returning to St. Petersburg he attended a comprehensive school (1992-1996). There was a conflict with the teachers. In Italy, children were taught differently, without coercion, and the authority of the teachers was not hammered into the head of the elementary school student. Pavlik could make a remark to the English teacher, reproaching him for incorrect pronunciation. In the 4th grade, Pasha became interested in programming and, together with Nikolai, created programs on his first computer, an IBM PC XT. In the computer class, instead of a screensaver, he installed a photo of a computer science teacher on school cars, signing it with the friendly “must die” (English: “must die”).

In 1996, the young rebel was transferred to the Academic Gymnasium of St. Petersburg State University, where lessons, including 4 languages, are taught in depth. Pavel values ​​the acquired knowledge very much; according to the millionaire, knowledge of languages ​​broadens his worldview and promotes career growth. Durov has 9 foreign languages, he can easily maintain a conversation in international English, exotic Persian, Latin, as well as Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano.

In the experimental classes of the gymnasium, Durov meets the same smart people as himself. However, classmates referred to him as a non-team student, claiming that he "always found a way to be separate." Journalist Nikolai Kononov, who wrote Durov's biography, will come to the conclusion that Pavel "was known as a sociopath because few wanted to talk to anyone at school."

In 2001, Pavel Durov graduated from the gymnasium with honors, he did not reach the “gold”, he was awarded a silver medal. To the question “who do you want to become”, the graduate laughed it off - “Internet totem”. In principle, he became one - an idol, a symbol, a totem of the most popular Russian-speaking social network.

University years

In 2001, Pavel became a student at the same university as Kolya. The elder brother is studying mathematics and programming at St. Petersburg State University, and Pasha chose the specialty "English Philology and Translation".

A philology student becomes a university activist. " Pavel spoke quietly, but for some reason everyone fell silent and began to listen”, - this is how businessman and scientist Yuri Lifshits, also a student at St. Petersburg State University, will speak about Durov’s leadership charisma. Pavel is included in the ranking of students with the highest level of intelligence. For outstanding achievements, he is honored with a government scholarship, awarded with a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation. Durov has been a recipient of the V. Potanin program for 3 years in a row.

As a student, Durov acted as a web developer for two Internet projects:

• The Durov.com resource is a platform for students to exchange useful information, an electronic database of abstracts, term papers, etc.
• The website spbgu.ru is a forum for students of St. Petersburg State University. Here Durov intuitively “felt” for the future concept of “VKontakte” - he modeled a real communication scheme: when creating a profile, students indicated their real first and last name, department. “I tried to kindle the fire,” admits Pavel, who contributed hot topics for discussion to the forum. “We had to create the illusion of a critical mass.”

While working on these non-profit projects, Pavel saw that power comes not only from money, but also from control of information. Running websites got him used to the idea of ​​having no boss . He strives to work for himself, and not for his “uncle.”

In 2005, with the rank of “reserve lieutenant,” Durov graduated from military school with a specialization in “Propaganda and Psychological Warfare.” In 2006, he left his alma mater, having earned a diploma with honors.

Foundation and development of VKontakte

After university, Pavel took up the creation of VKontakte. It all started with friendly advice. His classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, a student at Tufts University (USA), observed the growing popularity of the social network Facebook, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg, in America. Having learned from “Business Petersburg” about the St. Petersburg State University forum and Durov’s successes, he wrote to Pavel about the idea of ​​​​creating a similar Russian-language network. Durov liked the plan, because the search for classmates was personally relevant for him and Vyacheslav: After all, we might never meet again.

At first the site was called “Student.ru,” but then Pavel changed the name to a more comprehensive one. Durov created the portal’s logo quickly, typing it in “Tahoma” font in 3 minutes. He chose colors that " don't piss anyone off"– blue, white and gray.

The site has not become just a “Facebook clone”. Durov claimed that they “never copied without using their brains.”

The friends did not have start-up capital, Vyacheslav turned to his father, Mikhail Mirilashvili, for help. Thanks to his support, VKontakte LLC was established and the project was launched. There were three founders of the company: Vyacheslav Mirilashvili with a controlling stake, and co-owners Lev Leviev and Pavel Durov with a non-controlling share of securities.

FIRST STEPS OF THE SITE

In 2006, the number of visitors to Runet social networks grew exponentially: Odnoklassniki, launched in March 2006, had gained 1.5 million users by November. The demo version of VKontakte appeared on time - in September 2006, just a little more and it could have been late. Durov created a personal page with ID No. 1 http://vkontakte.ru/id1.

At first the site was closed, registration was available by personal invitation. After 3 months, from December 2006, the resource began to be replenished by everyone. Aspiring businessmen organized a drawing with a prize from “invite more friends and you will receive an iPod.” In a couple of days, the site attracted over 2 thousand users.

Pavel selected the right people for his team.

Remember: there are very few of you who can do something and not talk.

Actions, not words, lead a person to success.

Durov resolutely fired those who raised any doubts. His brother Nikolai worked with him. He resolved issues of server load, which were very relevant: from 2006 to 2007, the VK audience increased to 3 million.

Durov was awarded the title of “Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007” by the publication “Business Petersburg”, and in the same year the popular vote of the Runet Prize put the portal in 2nd place. The resource of that time was non-profit, without advertising, and thus fundamentally differed from other Internet endeavors.

VKontakte is beginning to interest potential buyers, but Pavel does not want to sell the development; instead, he attracts investors. The first financial sponsor was Yuri Milner, Chairman of the Board of the Digital Sky Technologies investment fund. The Internet investor was remembered by the VKontakte team for the fact that he himself took the initiative and personally came to them.

The investor acquired 24.99% of the shares and later resold them to Mail.ru Group.

In 2008, the network's audience amounted to more than 20 million registered clients. This year the site is being monetized and advertising banners are appearing.

In 2010, the company's central office moved to Nevsky Prospekt 28, to the building of the Singer company. Of the six floors of the house, the web developer rents the top two for the company headquarters. Later, he will buy a huge space - a squat on Nevsky 65, where his overworked employees can also spend the night. Pavel himself did not want to get attached to anything, he rented an apartment nearby, lived here and there, but mostly in a squat. Later he will give the keys to these square meters to Vasily Babich, an employee of the company. Durov didn’t come into the office before 12 o’clock, he worked in his own way until 3-4 o’clock in the morning.

In 2011, with already 7.9 billion rubles in his pocket, the programmer entered the TOP of the richest businessmen in Russia (350th place). One of his colleagues Oleg Andreev explained the results of a newcomer to the IT industry by saying that Durov “ knew how to look through the eyes of a person who has an old browser and slow Internet.”

In 2011, Durov, as the best startup creator on the Runet, was included in the Forbes TOP. However, Pavel is not limited to creating a startup, he decides to finance them. By the end of 2011, six “startups” received $25 thousand each on a competitive basis.

Pavel does not limit the VK audience and dreams of entering the European market. In 2011, the domain moved to the shortened address vk.com, which is easier to understand for residents of other countries.

In 2011, a photo of Pavel Valerievich showing an indecent gesture was published in Forbes. The eccentric hero finds himself in 3rd place in the ranking of extravagant and eccentric businessmen, to whom the press has already included.

This gesture, instead of a thousand words, became Pavel Mail.ru Group’s response to the company’s attempts to absorb the social network. Director of Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin already owned Odnoklassniki and wanted to merge the resources together.

The founders of the company, Mirilashvili and Leviev, did not approve of the actions of the freedom-loving co-founder. In April ’12, they sold their part of VKontakte (40% and 8%, respectively) to the United Capital Partners (UCP) group of companies, without informing the other shareholders - Durov and Mail.ru Group - about the deal.

Life in exile

In December 2011, after protests against the falsification of the State Duma election results, FSB officers recommended Durov to block opposition communities and meetings on the resource. The general director of VK rejected the offer, after which he was invited to the prosecutor's office to testify.

In 2011, special forces visited Durov. Durov shared with reporters from The New York Times that the idea of ​​creating Telegram (Durov’s next product after VK) dawned on him precisely at the moment when these trained guys approached his apartment.

They had weapons and looked very serious. It seemed like they wanted to break down the door

Durov advocates free access to information on the Internet. For the convenience of users (free music tracks, videos), he had to pay more than once: content owners filed lawsuits for non-compliance with copyright. In 2010, the State Television and Radio Company VGTRK was the first to take VK to court for illegally posting its content on the site. After 2 years, singer Sergei Lazarev warned that he would sue for pirated content on VK. Durov responded to this by informing on Twitter that Lazarev’s compositions had been removed from the site and quipped that now the cultural value of VKontakte had increased. Durov himself did this check for pirated content:

In January 12th, during the Digital Life Design conference, Pavel announced to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, his intention to sponsor the encyclopedia. After 3 months, the programmer donated $1,000,000 to the Wikipedia project. The patron believes that money " overrated because creation is much more interesting than consumption.”

Pavel Durov initiated the championship for VK Cup programmers. In 2017, this open youth tournament (from 14 to 23 years old) is held for the fourth time.

His first post on the social network Twitter, dated May 9, read: “People are walking. Of course, 67 years ago Stalin defended Hitler’s right to repress the population of the USSR.” A company spokesman said that the head of VK honors the Victory Day. And the comment arose from the fact that Pavel’s grandfather (WWII participant Semyon Tulyakov), having received three wounds and the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, was repressed without trial or investigation in peacetime.

2 On May 27, on the city day, VK managers, together with their boss, launched paper airplanes with 5,000-dollar banknotes attached to them from the windows of the central office. Townspeople gathered under the main headquarters of the VK and started a fight over banknotes. Durov was showered with angry comments accusing him of snobbery. The head of VKontakte explained that he only wanted to maintain a cheerful mood on the occasion of the founding day of St. Petersburg, but “ I had to stop quickly - people began to go wild».

HIDDEN CASE

On April 5, 2013, an accident occurred near the VK office. The investigation concluded that the car that hit the traffic police officer was driven by the founder of VK. But in October 2013, due to the “absence of a crime,” the case was closed, then reopened, and closed again in 2014.

In December 13th, the FSB of the Russian Federation asked the head of VKontakte for personal data of the organizers of the Euromaidan communities. The CEO of the social network refused to provide information. He valued the trust of millions of Ukrainian clients of the resource, and considered the issuance of information about the user base illegal.

UCP vs. MAIL.RU

What you own sooner or later begins to own you Durov's quote claims to be included in the collection of classical aphorisms.

He quickly sells material "anchors": furniture, property, shares. In 2014, he parted with 12% of VK, selling them to his friend Tavrin (media manager, former head of Megafon). The securities, in turn, were bought from Ivan Tavrin by the Mail.ru group, which eventually acquired a controlling 52 percent. The holder of 48% of the securities, the UCP association, stated that the policies of Mail.ru Group harm the interests of VK and began legal claims.

The “X” hour struck on March 21, 2014, when Pavel made a statement “on his own”. It was signed a month later: Probably, in Russian conditions something like this was inevitable, but I’m glad that we lasted 7.5 years.”

On April 22, 2014, information appeared that Pavel Valerievich had left his homeland. Former CEO considers his departure final. He commented to TechCrunch journalists that for him there was no way back: Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.

The founder of the portal calls VKontakte the best that has been created in the field of communication on the Russian market, and it is difficult to argue with him. The facts speak for themselves: the startup’s growth in popularity has broken all Runet records. The site, conceived as a means of finding friends, has transformed into the largest social network in the Russian Federation; in terms of the number of “users,” VKontakte is ahead of the Russian-language segment of Facebook and Odnoklassniki. The resource is visited monthly by more than 97 million people (data from April 2017).

PILGRIM'S LIFE

The programmer named 7 conditions under which he could return: reforms of the courts and education, simplification of laws, economic autonomy of the regions, etc.

1 Elected judges and open courts. Durov believes that only judges chosen by ordinary people, not officials, as well as jurors, can ensure the most fair and independent outcome of the proceedings. This, in turn, will help develop entrepreneurial initiative.

2 Deregulation (simple laws). Paul is against the abundance of laws that contradict each other. They stimulate the development of corruption in the country and slow down economic growth.

3 Open competitions for government positions. Officials, fearing for their jobs, form their teams through established friendships and family ties, as a result of which significant positions can be occupied by illiterate and ineffective employees. This also affects the country's corruption and economic development. It is necessary to introduce transparent mechanisms and direct elections to government positions.

4 A tax haven based on income from the export of raw materials. Russia is rich in natural resources. It is necessary to free underdeveloped sectors of the economy from taxes and shift their burden to well-developed raw material sectors. This will help attract investment, equalize the balance of development and give impetus to the economic development of the entire state.

5 Economic autonomy of regions. It is necessary to change the taxation structure in such a way that the bulk of regional taxes remain locally and are not redistributed, as now, to the capital.

6 Abolition of feudal remnants. Freedom of consciousness of the population is the basis of progress and economic development of Russia, which is currently hampered by the slave consciousness formed through military service, the institution of registration, and the need to obtain a separate passport for travel.

7 Destandardization of the education system. The modern education system limits the consciousness of the younger generation and forms stereotyped views. We need flexibility and non-standard training programs that will educate free and creative individuals.

In his VK profile, in the “political beliefs” column, “libertarianism” is listed (a movement that prohibits “aggressive violence”).

Now I am very happy, living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world

Pavel has citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he received it for investing in the country’s economy. The passport of this state in the Caribbean with a population of 50 thousand allows you to freely travel around the world. Durov does not sit still, he changes locations a couple of times a month. Together with him, programmers developing Telegram travel to different cities and countries.

Telegram is a new project by Pavel Durov

On August 14, 2013, Telegram was launched, an application for smartphones and other mobile devices where you can exchange text messages and files of various formats. The messenger is designed with an emphasis on speed and security.

Telegram allows you to supplement your posts with funny pictures – stickers. A special feature of the stickers in the application is the absence of a background, which creates the illusion of a sticker.

The messenger is free for users, but it costs Durov a lot. Pavel – “2 in 1”, is both the founder and sponsor of Telegram. Every year Durov finances it with approximately $12 million. He warns against getting too carried away with money: “ boring work with dull cowards, having to lie and betray your world - these are just part of the price you pay for excessive desire for paper.

Telegram uses a special message encoding method developed by Nikolai Durov. The server part uses the power of US and German companies. Durov's project was developed on the assumption that "all communication channels are monitored." “Even our system administrators cannot access user chats,” assures the creator of the system.

In June 2014, Telegram was awarded a prestigious award in Berlin - at the Europas competition it was named the fastest growing startup of the year. The Europas Prize was established in 2009 and selects the most progressive and innovative technology startups in Europe.

In November 2014, the application had about 1 million installations (data from TJournal), a couple of months later – already 35 million.

In 2014, The New York Times named the entrepreneur Russian. The programmer admits: My dream is to break the national inferiority complex by proving that products from Russia can be in massive demand all over the world.

In 2015, there was talk of selling Telegram to Google Corporation (for $1 billion), but Durov denied information about the deal.

In February 2016, another reason to celebrate appeared: Telegram reached the 100 million mark. active users per month.

Representatives of the Russian government warned of blocking Telegram if Durov does not change the anonymity policy. But the fundamental concept of Telegram implies the security of correspondence; Pavel refused to give out information about users.

FSB officers stated that when planning the explosion in the St. Petersburg metro that occurred on April 3, 2017, Telegram was used as a communication channel. The messenger has been called a method of communication for terrorists.

“Privacy is ultimately more important than our fear of bad things like terrorism,” the Telegram creator said in an interview with TechCrunch. “ISIS will always find other ways to communicate.”

When asked by Roskomnazdor in May 2017 to provide information for registering the messenger, its founder refused. In June, Durov nevertheless sent information, warning that further release of clients’ personal data was out of the question.

Pavel Durov encrypts his personal life no less carefully than his correspondence on Telegram. Little more is known about her than a donut hole. He does not post photos with his beloved on his pages on the Internet, and it is not known whether he has one. The heartfelt connections attributed to him (with Alena Shishkova, Vika Odintsova, Daria Bondarenko) are unverified. Pavel does not post images of his loved ones; instead, he shares photos of the beautiful places he visits.

Personal life and worldview of Pavel Durov

Pavel’s love for the color black in his wardrobe, to which he has been partial since his university days, is also noted by the European media: “all-black wardrobe,” they succinctly comment. suggested “a car of any color, if this color is black,” we can say that Durov wears clothes of any color, if this color is black.

Indeed, with a height of 178 cm and a weight of 75 kg, Pavel can afford to show off a little. This image of a figure in black received over half a million likes on VK!

The image of a figure in black received over half a million likes on VK

Pavel is a member of the Mensa community, which includes people with an IQ exceeding the intelligence level of 98% of the world's inhabitants. Research by psychologists shows that “smart people” do not need a lot of communication to feel happy; the higher the intelligence, the less the need for a large number of friendships. Maybe that’s why in 2017 Durov “purged” his friends on social networks and subscribers of his Youtube channel? “We must not be afraid to get rid of outdated ideas, connections, places of work.

Pavel does not talk on his cell phone (“it’s outdated, it’s too intrusive”), he admires Che Guevara and. He is a vegetarian and indifferent to drinking. Pavel is an active supporter of a healthy lifestyle; during his work at VK, advertising of alcohol and cigarettes was prohibited, because he considers them the strongest drugs. He also classifies love as a drug, so he prefers not to fall in love.

His favorite film is the black-and-white drama “12 Angry Men” (1957), and the most important thing for him is self-development. The online authority speaks about his main aspiration this way:

I would describe my life’s work more broadly: helping people and improving the world around us

Pavel Durov's rules of success

On November 19, 2012, the biography of the “totem” “The Durov Code” was presented. The real story of VKontakte and its creator” by Nikolai Kononov, editor-in-chief of the Hopes&Fears publication. The rights to the film adaptation of the book about Durov were purchased by AR Films. It was previously reported (2012) that the film would be released at the end of 2017, but circumstances have changed a lot since then. In the preface to the publication, writer Yuri Saprykin noted: “The hero of this book does not fight for freedom - but affirms it by the very fact of his existence.”

Pavel Durov is a representative of a new generation of purposeful businessmen.

Not only his native publications write about him, but also BBC News, The Guardian, Silicon Allee, Fortune.

He belongs to the world “digital elite”, uniting brave and talented programmers. Pavel has a keen entrepreneurial vision. He is hardworking, determined, true to his principles and values ​​freedom very much. He is, of course, not a sociopath or a totem, but a person from whom there is something to learn. He has more than 20 tips for achieving success, some of them are philosophical, some are mundane and applied. His “golden recommendation” is as follows:

Do what you truly enjoy and you will be much happier.

Pavel Valerievich Durov (born October 10, 1984, Leningrad, USSR) - Russian entrepreneur, programmer, ruble billionaire, one of the creators of the social network “VKontakte” and the company of the same name; creator of the cross-platform messenger Telegram. Former General Director of VKontakte (2006-2014). During his student years, he was a laureate of scholarships from the President of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation, a three-time laureate of the Potanin Scholarship.

In 2001 he graduated with honors from the Academic Gymnasium, in 2006 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University with a degree in English Philology and Translation with honors (which he still has not received). A year earlier, he completed professional training at the Faculty of Military Education of St. Petersburg State University with a specialization in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, after which he received the rank of reserve lieutenant. Immediately after graduating from university, he created VKontakte, currently the largest social network in Russia. As of 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, occupied 350th place in the ranking of Russian billionaires.

Pavel is a vegetarian and has libertarian political views. Durov is called the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, and is also often criticized for his eccentric antics and statements. On November 19, 2012, Nikolai Kononov’s book “The Durov Code” was published, describing the formation of VKontakte and its creator; AR Films has already acquired the rights to adapt it.

In 2014, he left Russia and said that he was not going to return.

In 2016 and 2017 included in the Forbes list of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia

Family

Father - Doctor of Philology Valery Semenovich Durov (born 1945), author of many scientific works, since 1992 has headed the Department of Classical Philology of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University.

Mother - Albina Alexandrovna Durova.

Brother - Nikolay (born 1980), mathematician, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, multiple winner of Russian and international olympiads in mathematics and computer science, twice absolute world champion in programming among students, from the date of its foundation until mid-2013 he was the technical director of VKontakte "

Half-brother - Mikhail Petrov, son of Albina Durova from his first marriage.

Pavel's grandfather, Semyon Petrovich Tulyakov (born 1913), participated in the Great Patriotic War. He served in the 65th Infantry Regiment, took part in battles on the Leningrad Front in the Krasnoborsk and Gatchina directions, and was wounded three times. He was nominated for the Order of the Red Star, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree, and on the 40th anniversary of the Victory, the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree. After the war he was repressed.

Biography

Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984 into an intelligent family. He went to the first grade of school while in Turin, where his father worked for several years. Returning to his hometown, Pavel briefly studied at a regular school and entered the experimental classes of the Academic Gymnasium (now Mednikov’s Academic Classes), which provides in-depth study of all subjects, including four foreign languages. There he had a reputation as an erudite and sat at the first desk due to vision problems.

At the age of 11, he first became interested in programming. His trick is known when he changed the screensaver of all school computers to a photo of a computer science teacher with the caption “Must die” (Russian: Must die). Durov was deprived of access to computers, but he hacked passwords to them. In 2001, he graduated from the Academic Gymnasium with honors. In 2002, Pavel entered the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, majoring in English Philology and Translation. For his academic achievements and contribution to student life at the university, he was awarded a scholarship from the Government of the Russian Federation, and then a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation.

In general, Pavel Durov is distinguished by a passion for languages: “Learn foreign languages. This will unrealistically expand the depth of perception of the world and open up unprecedented prospects for training, development and career growth,” he once gave this advice to readers on his VKontakte page. It also lists the languages ​​that Pavel Durov speaks: in addition to English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, he knows Latin and Persian.

Pavel was a three-time winner of the Potanin Scholarship, and was also one of a select number of St. Petersburg State University students with the highest level of intelligence and leadership abilities. He won competitions in computer science, linguistics and design, and organized university-wide events. Pavel graduated from the university in 2006 with honors (which he never took). A year earlier, he completed his professional training at the Faculty of Military Training of St. Petersburg State University with a specialization in Propaganda and Psychological Warfare. During his studies at this faculty, Pavel served as a platoon commander at the Faculty of Philology, and upon graduation received the rank of reserve lieutenant.

When I looked at people who commute to offices every day for routine work, I could not imagine such a scenario in my life. Managing Internet projects and organizing university events taught me independence and the idea that I had no direct superiors.

Pavel Durov

Even while studying at St. Petersburg State University, Pavel created non-profit Internet projects designed to improve the quality of social and scientific life of the university. These projects were the sites Durov.com and Spbgu.ru. The first project is an electronic library of university abstracts, as well as a place for students to exchange ideas and opinions; the second is the university forum, where Pavel often initiated various discussions, in which, using different accounts, he argued with himself.

But by the summer of 2006, he realized that his student websites, despite all their popularity, were ineffective in uniting students, since many hid their names under nicknames and their real faces under avatars: students could communicate with each other online without even realizing it. that they study in the same group. Then he started looking for another form for the student website. Later, Pavel’s old friend, who returned from the USA after studying, introduced him to an Internet project for American university students - Facebook, where users posted their real names and photographs on their profiles. Durov decided to introduce a similar website concept in Russia, that is, real people under real names.

The original name of the future project - “Student.ru” - was replaced by Pavel with “VKontakte”, since, according to him, “sooner or later we all become graduates.” He began to implement immediately after graduation. Pavel and his brother, Nikolai Durov, founded the limited liability company VKontakte and launched a beta version of the network of the same name, whose domain - vkontakte.ru - was, according to official data, registered on October 1, 2006. At first the site was closed, in other words, it was possible to register only after a personal invitation.

But at the end of the year, registration became free. In a few days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; reason - competition - iPod to the one who invites more friends. The rapidly growing number of users forced the creators to change servers and improve software support for the network. Pavel repeatedly received offers to buy his product, but he rejected them. Instead, the programmer attracted investors to his project. VKontakte developed before our eyes. Already in 2007, it became the third most popular site on the Runet; in 2008, the network was monetized, and the number of users exceeded 20 million. In 2010, Pavel’s company moved into the Singer house, which is located on Nevsky Prospekt, opposite the Kazan Cathedral.

In 2007, the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper named Durov one of the winners in the Best Young Entrepreneurs 2007 competition. As of 2011, Durov, with a fortune of 7.9 billion rubles, occupied 350th place in the ranking of Russian billionaires. In December 2011, Pavel and the head of the DST Global fund, Yuri Milner, launched the Start Fellows charity project, which is aimed at financing startups selected on a competitive basis. By the end of December, six startups received $25 thousand each. On January 24, 2012, at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, during a joint presentation with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, Pavel promised to donate one million dollars to the online encyclopedia. In March, the transfer of the promised amount to the Wikimedia Foundation account was confirmed. “We greatly appreciate Mr. Durov's generous offer and thank him for his understanding of the grant review process,” said Wikimedia Foundation spokesman Jay Walsh.

On May 27, 2012, top managers of VKontakte, led by Durov, threw airplanes with 5,000-ruble banknotes attached to them from the window of the company’s central office in St. Petersburg. Soon a crowd gathered under the windows and even started a fight for the money. Pavel later explained that with his action he wanted to create a festive atmosphere on City Day. Durov then scattered a total of about $2,000. He also reported the joy with which he watched the crowd's reaction. According to eyewitnesses, Pavel filmed what was happening on camera. While working at VKontakte, Pavel lived in a rented apartment next to the office, where, according to him, developers could stay overnight.

On April 5, 2013, it was reported that while driving a car, Durov turned left from Sadovaya Street to the Moika River embankment, violating the requirements of the road sign. The traffic police officer who noticed the offense tried to stop the car. The driver did not comply with the requirement, continuing to drive, and as a result hit an employee, causing him bruises and abrasions. Initially, the VKontakte press service denied Pavel’s involvement in the incident, pointing out that their general director did not have a car. In addition, the car itself belonged to the vice-president of the company, Ilya Perekopsky. But in June, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg proved that it was Durov who was driving. Immediately after the incident, a criminal case was opened against Pavel under Article 318 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (use of violence against a representative of the authorities), which after an investigation was closed in June 2013, and the offense itself fell under Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer) , since the investigation did not collect sufficient evidence of the deliberate use of violence.

In September 2013, it became known that the criminal case was returned for further investigation in order to establish the presence or absence of criminal intent in the actions of Pavel Durov. Evidence indicating that Durov’s actions were deliberate and aimed at using violence against the police officer was again not found by investigators, and at the beginning of 2014 the criminal case was again discontinued.

In February 2014, the United Capital Partners (UCP) Fund, which owns 48% of VKontakte shares, announced that it intends to defend its interests “in Russian and international jurisdictions.” UCP representatives accused Pavel Durov and Mail.ru Group employees of actions contrary to the interests of VK. The fund explained that they had previously tried to resolve the issues peacefully, but all proposals were blocked by representatives of Mail.ru Group and Megafon CEO Ivan Tavrin, who at that time owned a controlling stake in VK (52%). The UCP noted that this behavior of the VK co-owners “extremely surprises and worries them.”

Having exhausted all possibilities for a reasonable agreement, we transfer disputed cases on “VK” to legal companies. The brief essence of our complaints is that Pavel Durov and representatives of Mail.ru Group systematically made and continue to make decisions not in the best interests of VK...

UCP Partner Yuri Kachuro

In response, USM Advisors CEO Ivan Streshinsky accused UCP of systematic pressure on VK shareholders:

Since its declared entry into VKontakte, UCP has demonstrated a reluctance to build constructive relationships with other shareholders and the company’s management, preferring a strategy of threats, blackmail and intrigue. In particular, an entire campaign was organized to put legal pressure and publicly discredit the founder of VKontakte, Pavel Durov, with whom the UCP began communication with threats of lawsuits and criminal prosecution.

Ivan Streshinsky

In contact with

“VKontakte” is the largest social network in Runet, the first most popular site in Belarus, the second in Russia, the third in Ukraine, the fifth in Kazakhstan, the 26th in the world, which is estimated at $1.5 billion. For example, in September 2012, the site's daily audience averaged 22 million people. As of September of the same year, more than 140 million users were registered on VKontakte. In terms of the speed of its growth, the social network has broken all Runet records. The network's major shareholder is Mail.Ru Group, a holding company that owns, as of April 2011, 32.49% of all VKontakte shares.

VKontakte provides financial support for developing Olympiad programming in Russia and sponsors teams of programmers in St. Petersburg and North-West Russia. Among the company's employees are the best Russian programmers, winners of international programming and mathematics competitions.

On January 24, 2014, it became known that in December 2013 Durov entered into a deal to sell his remaining 12% of VKontakte shares to Ivan Tavrin and ceased to be the owner of the network.

What you own sooner or later begins to own you.

I've been actively disposing of my possessions over the last few years, giving away and selling everything I owned, from furniture and belongings to real estate and companies. To achieve the ideal, I had to get rid of the largest part of my property - a 12% share of VKontakte. I am glad that not so long ago I achieved this goal by selling my share of VKontakte to my friend Ivan Tavrin.

This change is unlikely to affect the management of VKontakte - the board of directors listens to my opinion not because of the presence or absence of my share, but because I created this network and understand its deep mechanisms. I’m not going anywhere and I’m going to continue to monitor the quality of VKontakte. In the end, VKontakte is the best thing that has been created in Russia in the communications field. And my responsibility is to take care and protect this network.

Pavel Durov

On April 1, Pavel Durov announced on his page that he was resigning from the post of General Director of VKontakte LLC, explaining this by reducing the available freedom of action, but then, on April 3, he withdrew his resignation letter. Then it turned out that this was not an April Fool's joke; on April 21, the owners of the social network VKontakte granted the resignation letter, which had previously been sent to them by the general director and founder of the network, Pavel Durov.

Telegram

On August 14, 2013, the first Telegram client was introduced. In November, the program had, according to TJournal, about 1 million installations. In an interview with The New York Times, Pavel said that the initial idea for the app came to him back in 2011, when special forces came to his door. When the latter finally left, Durov immediately wrote to his brother Nikolai. It was then that he realized that he had no safe way to communicate with his brother. The service is built on MTProto correspondence encryption technology, developed by Pavel’s brother Nikolai.

In response to proposals from some officials to ban the messenger in Russia, on December 24, 2015, on his VKontakte page, Pavel Durov stated: “As for Telegram, the project has not and will not issue personal data and encryption keys to third parties. Messenger is popular among tens of millions of users in dozens of markets, and the threat of blocking in one or two of them will not affect its privacy policy.”

Emigration

Pavel Durov and Arkady Volozh at the Yandex Data Factory conference, March 2, 2015
On April 16, Pavel Durov announced that on December 13, 2013, the FSB demanded that the network’s management hand over the personal information of the organizers of the Euromaidan groups, to which he refused. In December, a deal was made to sell a stake in the company. According to him, Russian jurisdiction does not extend to Ukrainian users of the VKontakte social network. Durov also noted that disseminating data from Ukrainian users would not only be a violation of the law, but also a crime against millions of users from Ukraine.

On April 22, 2014, it became known that Pavel Durov had gone abroad and had no intention of returning to Russia. He said this in an interview with TechCrunch. He noted: “Unfortunately, it is impossible to run an Internet business in this country.”

“I'm afraid there is no turning back for me. Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities. »
The founder of VKontakte also said that in the near future he plans to focus on creating a mobile social network. Later, the UCP fund, which at that time owned 48% of the shares of VKontakte, stated that it did not consider Pavel Durov’s resignation from the post of general director a fait accompli. UCP partner Yuri Kachuro believed that the executive director of VKontakte exceeded his authority and did not discuss such a serious decision with the board of directors.

Durov constantly moves from country to country, never staying in one for more than two or three weeks. His team of programmers travels with him to Paris, Singapore and other cities, with whom he develops the Telegram messenger. Pavel reported that he was not a fan of the idea of ​​the state. “I am very happy now, living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world.” In addition to the Russian one, he has a passport from the state of Saint Kitts and Nevis; he received this passport after investing in the country’s economy.

Views and beliefs

Pavel Durov adheres to libertarian political views, and is also a vegetarian. He advocates reform of the Russian educational system; abolition of taxes in the field of information; abolition of the visa system, registration and military conscription; reduction of customs duties; granting regions full autonomy; and also for the openness of jury trials. He is inspired by Ernesto Che Guevara and Steve Jobs, and according to his religious beliefs, according to some sources, he is a Pastafarian, according to others, a supporter of the Zen school. On October 10, 2017, on his birthday, he spoke about seven things that he gave up many years ago, and which, in his opinion, negatively affect consciousness: 1) Alcohol 2) Animal meat 3) Pills and any pharmaceutical products 4) Nicotine and other narcotic substances 5) Coffee, black and green tea, energy drinks 6) Fast food, sugar, carbonated drinks 7) Television and its analogues.

Relationship to Facebook

When it became known that Facebook was looking for employees in Russia, Durov said that VKontakte employees do not switch to employment in another network, since “there are no fools” and Facebook is a “sinking ship.” A month earlier, he had already called the American social network “a stronghold of pedoliberals,” and in May 2012, on his Twitter account, he ironically called it a “cheap hack.”

Business style

Durov is characterized by a tough, sometimes even arrogant style of doing business. In 2011-2012, he waged a “corporate war” with Mail.ru Group, a major shareholder of VKontakte. The conflict began in March 2011 with the holding’s attempts to absorb the social network by purchasing 100% of its shares and merge the site with Odnoklassniki. In response, Durov called Mail.ru a “trash holding”, showed them the middle finger and convinced the co-founders of VKontakte not to sell their shares. In April 2012, the “war” stopped.

In the spring of 2012, a conflict broke out between VKontakte and the editors of the Vedomosti newspaper. Thanks to a technical innovation on the site, users could view the full texts of articles from web publications without clicking on an active link. Vedomosti considered this illegal and openly accused the social network of copyright infringement. VKontakte ignored the statement, and later disabled the activity of links to publications on the Vedomosti website. In the end, the newspaper’s editors removed the VKontakte widgets from their website and “froze” the publication’s official page on the social network. The managing director of the Vedomosti publishing company accused Durov of his inability to conduct a “civilized business.”