Pavel Valeryevich Durov (Павел Валерьевич Дуров) is a self-made Russian entrepreneur known for creating Vkontakte and Telegram. Vkontakte is Russia’s largest social media network. Telegram is a free messaging app like WhatsApp, with over 600 million users worldwide and over 45 million active users in Russia.
Durov left Russia after the government requested that he provide encrypted data of his social media network’s users and he refused. He became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, France, and Dubai. As of November 2022, Durov was listed as the 111th wealthiest person on earth.
Early Life and Education
Pavel Durov was born in Russia but spent most of his childhood in Italy, where his father worked. He returned to Russia, where he studied at the Philology Department of Saint Petersburg University and graduated with a first-class degree in 2006.
Early Career in Technology
In 2006, Durov joined forces with Ilya Perekopsky on an IT venture. They created VKontakte, a social media platform based on Facebook. The platform became popular and grew to have a value of $3 billion. In 2011, Durov ran into trouble with the police in Saint Petersburg over a politician’s page on VKontakte.The following year he rejected an offer from Mail.ru to buy VK. In 2013, he sold his shares to Ivan Tavrin, who resold them to Mail.ru.
In April 2014, Durov resigned from the VK board of directors. It is widely believed that his resignation was related to the Ukrainian war. He denied this allegation and claimed it was an April Fools joke. Later that month, Durov refused to give Ukrainian protesters’ personal data to Russian security agencies. He was dismissed as CEO of the company, which claimed it was because they were honoring his earlier resignation. Durov left Russia.
Telegram
After leaving Russia, Pavel Durov obtained citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis through investment. He began focusing on a new venture in technology, an encrypted messaging service called Telegram. In 2018, the Russian government launched a series of attempts to block Telegram when the company would not cooperate with security services. After two years of trying to stop Telegram from operating, the order was lifted in 2020.
Despite the adversity, Telegram has millions of active monthly users in Russia, making it the second-largest messaging application, surpassed only by WhatsApp.
Awards and Acknowledgements
Known as the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia, Durov has received several acknowledgments for his contributions to the IT sector, including:
- The Nordic Business Forum named Durov the most promising Northern European leader under 30.
- The WEF Young Global Leaders chose him to represent Finland.
- Fortune Magazine included Durov in the “40 Under 40” list.
Personal Life
Pavel Durov is not married and has two children. He is a vegetarian and libertarian and abstains from alcohol. Durov also promotes freedom from personal possessions.