About Pavel Durov
- Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, which has more than 700 million monthly active users worldwide.
- Telegram, which is free to use, competes with messaging apps like Facebook's WhatsApp.
- Durov left Russia after he refused to cooperate with the Russian secret service and provide encrypted data of his first social network's users.
- Durov, who became a French citizen in 2021, moved himself and Telegram to Dubai in 2017.
- Since the Ukraine war began, Telegram has become a critical source of information, and plenty of disinformation too, related to the conflict.
Wealth History
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Did you know
Durov is known as Russia's Zuckerberg because he created Vkontakte, Russia's biggest social network, at age 22.
In 2018 Pavel, with his brother Nikolai, raised $1.7 billion from investors to create TON, a blockchain system; it was shut down after the SEC banned it.
In Their Own Words
As soon as one agency gets to uncontrollably monitor private communications, soon enough this access falls into the hands of third parties - bribers, hackers, agents of other countries.
Pavel Durov
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