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Telegram creator Pavel Durov agreed to include the messenger in the register of information distributors in Russia after the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov said that only registration data is required from him, while “there is no talk of having access to users’ correspondence ".
Prior to this, Durov did not want to register Telegram in Russia, citing, among other things, Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (everyone has the right to privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraph and other messages), and the Russian authorities blocked the messenger for Russian users.
“The head of Roskomnadzor denied the desire to gain access to the personal correspondence of Telegram users and stated that all he expects from us to comply with the law is to provide information about the Telegram company:“There is no question that there will be access to users’ correspondence. There is only one question – about the five identifiers that the messenger must report to Roskomnadzor; they will be officially entered into the information dissemination register. That’s the point” (A. Zharov)
Registration data about the Telegram publishing company is not a secret and is available to anyone in open sources https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/OC391410 Email address [email protected], where our team receives complaints about content related to terrorist propaganda, is also public and known to Roskomnadzor.
If the regulator’s desires are really limited to this, I have no objection to using this data to register Telegram Messenger LLP in the register of information dissemination organizers, however, we will not comply with the unconstitutional and technically unrealizable “Yarovaya Law” - as well as other laws that are incompatible with privacy protection and Telegram privacy policy.
In other words, by agreeing to be included in the register, we proceed from the truth of the statement of the head of Roskomnadzor (“that’s the point”) and do not undertake any additional obligations. As part of our work with the Russian regulator, we can promise only the level of cooperation that we demonstrate in all other countries, namely, to continue working together to remove public materials related to the promotion of terrorism, drugs, calls for violence and child pornography, and also to continue working to prevent spam mailings.
“I can’t predict how this statement will affect the position of the regulator, but I am sure of one thing: if Telegram is really blocked in Russia, it will not happen because we refused to provide data about our company.”
June 28, 18:33 The head of Roskomnadzor Zharov said that in the near future Telegram will be included in the register of information distributors in Russia.
“At this stage, the Telegram messenger has provided all the data required by law for inclusion in the register of organizers of information dissemination. In the near future, the messenger will be included in this register.Thus, Telegram began to work in the legal framework of the Russian Federation. I am sure that other international communication services should do the same. As for Russian laws, they are mandatory for all companies operating in Russian jurisdiction."
What's happened?
Pavel Durov's team presented the online publishing service Telegraph. Platform users can create and post posts anonymously, without registration or authorization.
“Today we are launching Telegraph, a publishing tool that allows you to create impressive publications based on markdown (a lightweight text markup language for the web. - Esquire), with photos and all kinds of embedded elements,” the messenger’s official blog says.
As an example scenario for using the tool, the creators offered the following option: “With Telegraph, your Telegram channel can submit stories just like the media.” Is the service capable of taking on the mission of replacing or duplicating modern media? Let's answer this question.
How does Telegraph work?
Anyone can use the new publishing tool. The service is located at www.telegra.ph. When clicking on it, the user will find an almost empty white page with several lines. Each of them is signed, so it is impossible to get confused or confused in the algorithm of actions.
The topmost field was left for the title. By the way, it, along with the date of publication, will be displayed in the online address of the future post. For example: http://telegra.ph/This-line-for-title-12−03.
Below is the field that the developers left for the author's name. But since the service is declared anonymous, it is not necessary to enter personal data. If desired, you can specify any nickname.
The Telegraph authors created the third line for the main content of the publication: text, embedded components and links. For editing, the user has a fairly limited number of tools. The text can be bold or italic and enlarged. There are only two orientation options. By default, the material “tends” to the left edge. Center orientation is available as an option. But in this case the font and size change.
What does this give?
So far, Instant View only works with a few sites, including, for example, blog hosting Medium and the TechCrunch resource. It is the Instant View option that has taken on the role of a tool that should lock the audience into the messenger as closely as possible, cutting off the desire to go back to the original source of the publication.
But the creator can edit the finished content only if the cookies are saved. Once the browser cache is cleared, it will no longer be possible to change the content of the post. Just like trying to change something from another device. This is the price for anonymity.
Some media channels have an audience of up to one million people. At the same time, all Telegram channels collect four hundred million views daily. Pavel Durov shared these figures at the Mobile Congress in Barcelona in February. Then he added that the next step in the development of the messenger would be channels for the media and bloggers. They will provide direct access to the audience. In traditional social networks, achieving it has become much more difficult, since your voice is lost in news feeds, Durov is sure.
The emergence of Telegraph and Instant View is more of a natural development than a breakthrough. I agree with this and Head of Viber in Russia and CIS countries Evgeniy Roshchupkin. According to him, the current state of social networks is a consequence of user requests: “New media, which include instant messengers, are developing at incredible speed, transforming into full-fledged platforms for business and the end user. Already now, using the example of public accounts in Viber, we can say that brands, and especially the media, understand that this type of communication is a response to users’ requests. Within the framework of this functionality, it is possible not only to post news, but also to receive feedback from readers, who represent a very high-quality mobile audience. However, it is too early to talk about direct competition with the media: messengers are a promising, but additional and specific tool for generating content. And although we have examples of successful public accounts with an audience of more than a million subscribers, we understand that maintaining this level of content requires great professionals. Thus, in my opinion, messengers can be a good help for the media, but will not absorb them.”
The fact that the title of pioneer goes to Facebook also suggests that Telegram’s new features are not a breakthrough. Zuckerberg's brainchild was the first to launch Instant Articles, a feature comparable to Instant View. It has been integrating materials from the mobile versions of National Geographic, BuzzFeed, The New York Times and other publications into the social network without users going to their parent sites since April. And in test mode, the calculation began in 2015. Today, many social networks, including Russian ones, are working on a similar platform idea.
Will Telegraph and Telegram kill the media?
The expression “killer of anything” (product, service, industry) sounds at least vulgar. At most, this phrase devalues and discredits the very source of the threat. Remember those countless iPhone killers, Uber, which killed all taxi services. Such things rather change the market, introduce new rules, but do not suddenly make someone disappear.
Whether there are prerequisites for replacing the media with social networks and managers depends on the view of the concept of mass media, she said Vice President of Mail.Ru Group Anna Artamonova. “If by media we mean channels for information to reach people, then absolutely yes. If we mean a certain editorial office with people who have their own opinions, the range of topics they cover, and the policy for presenting the material, then no. Messengers and social networks strive to become a platform, not a unit of meaning. This is a broader and more correct strategy. The idea is to give anyone a platform to convey information, but not express their position in doing so. Messengers and social networks will definitely not maintain their own editorial staff, which will produce content: write texts, film stories, and the like.
In addition, there are two factors. The first is legislation. Now the media, especially in Russia, are quite strictly regulated in the legal field. And someone should be responsible for some opinion or information. And secondly, the ability and desire to write texts and create any content is not the destiny of many people.”
Classic media will not disappear, or rather, those who will be able to transform their business model will survive, believes Executive Director of the Institute for Applied Data Analysis at Deloitte Alexey Minin: “Why does the future belong to Google, Amazon, Facebook and other IT companies? Because they, essentially becoming marketplaces, demonetize the brand of those organizations that provide them with services. The media will need to abandon the traditional model of offering information. People don't want to look for her anymore. It is much more convenient for them to have some kind of media aggregator, where they can receive relevant information upon request to a chatbot or in some other way. That is, the media become a source of products that will be supplied to a single platform for communication with clients.
In general, the main point of a marketplace is that it knows everything about its users. For example, at what time and with what frequency do they read certain news. And the task of such aggregators is to cut off the media from clients, because it is precisely these clients that they will subsequently sell. Similar transformations of business models are already taking place in the banking sector and in retail (especially in electronics retail). In the near future, changes will affect the print media, and then the entire media sphere.”
In other words, we now see that the media, as best they can and as best they can, are mastering social networks, learning to export and even reproduce content on an ongoing basis on new platforms.
While social networks and instant messengers are not a threat to the media, and Telegraph is a completely unsuccessful product, he said Head of the Community Laboratory Vladislav Titov: “If Durov’s first two startups were successful (VKontakte and Telegram), then as for Telegraph there are big questions. Anonymity of authorship can be widely used by extremist informal organizations. They can agree to receive conditionally coded messages with seemingly meaningless text at a certain time. And those who need it will read these messages. If WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger are quite loyal to all intelligence services in all countries and actively fight against illegal elements, then Pavel Durov insists that Telegram is free from this. And Telegraph has an even wider field; you don’t even need to register there. And I very much doubt that this service will be of interest to ordinary users.”
According to the Statista resource, by September of this year Telegram had been installed by 100 million users. At the same time, according to Similarweb research, Telegram was in 21st place among the most popular social networks in the world.
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 its film adaptation.
In 2014, he left Russia and announced that he had no plans 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, has headed the Department of Classical Philology of the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University since 1992.
Mother - Albina Aleksandrovna 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 day of its foundation until mid-2013 he was the technical director of VKontakte "
Half-brother - Mikhail Petrov, son of Albina Durova from her 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 started implementing it immediately after graduating from university. 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. Within a few days, the network attracted more than 2,000 users; the reason is a competition - an iPod for whoever invites the most 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 was developing 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 newspaper “Business Petersburg” recognized Durov as one of the winners in the “Best Young Entrepreneurs of 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. The joy with which he watched the crowd's reaction was also reported. 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, all I had to do was 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, he is, according to some sources, 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.”
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. Nevertheless, classmates described him as a non-team student, claiming that he “always found a way to be independent.” Journalist Nikolai Kononov, whose biography of Durov belongs, will come to the conclusion that Pavel “was known as a sociopath because few people wanted to talk to anyone at school.”
In 2001, Pavel Durov graduated from high school with honors, did not reach the “gold”, and was awarded a silver medal. When asked “what do you want to become,” the graduate joked: “an Internet totem.” In principle, he became one - an idol, a symbol, a totem of the most popular Russian-language social network.
University years
In 2001, Pavel became a student at the same university as Kolya. The older 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, speaks about Durov’s leadership charisma. Pavel is included in the ranking of students with the highest level of intelligence. For his outstanding achievements, he was awarded a government scholarship and 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 essays, coursework, 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 the fact 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 by 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 off 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 03/21/14, when Pavel drew up 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 left his homeland. The 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 Nikolay 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.
Who is Pavel Durov really? This question has been of interest to many since the creation of the social network VKontakte, but the fact is that Pavel never talks much about his personality and information about him is collected from a few interviews and posts of Pavel on social networks. Not 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 application, which he founded in the midst of.
Telegram, based in Berlin, competes with Facebook's messaging app WhatsApp. Using double-layer encryption, the app claims to be "faster and more secure" than other instant messaging services.
Users can message and send files to friends, create group chats of up to 200 people, or "select 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."
