Pavel Durov is a famous Russian businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of several well-known media portals with a multi-million audience, including the social network VK and the messaging app Telegram. From 2006 to 2014, Durov served as president of VK.
This entrepreneur is considered a supporter of libertarian views in politics and prefers vegetarianism. He is often compared to another businessman Mark Zuckerberg. Pavel often receives criticism for eccentric public statements and extraordinary behavior.
In the fall of 2012, the book “The Durov Code” was published, authored by writer Nikolai Kononov. It describes in detail the stages of creating and promoting the online network platform VK, as well as the biography of its founder. Later, this book was filmed by the AR Films studio.
Pavel Durov left the Russian Federation in 2014, announcing that he was leaving the country forever. In 2016, he entered the TOP 200 richest entrepreneurs in the Russian Federation. Based on published data from Forbes, Durov in 2021 was ranked 112th on the list of world billionaires with a fortune of $17.2 billion.
In 2022, he was in 3rd place among the top billionaires of the Russian Federation, owning a fortune of $15.1 billion. Durov was the only one on this list of ten leading businessmen whose activities were not related to the industrial sector. Today he is considered one of the wealthiest and richest people in the UAE.
Basic biographical information
Pavel Durov was born in Leningrad on October 10, 1984. His father Valery Semenovich Durov and mother Albina Aleksandrovna Durova taught at the Department of Philology at St. Petersburg State University (SPbSU).
Pavel began attending primary school in the Italian city of Turin. His father was temporarily sent there to work at a local university. After returning from Italy to Leningrad, Pavel first studied at a comprehensive school.
Then his parents sent him to the Academic Gymnasium at St. Petersburg State University, where he continued his studies in a special experimental class with a deeper knowledge of all basic school subjects. These included 4 foreign languages. The young man sat at the first desk due to poor eyesight. Among his peers he had a reputation as an erudite.
His brother Nikolai, who already showed incredible mathematical abilities at the age of seven, had a huge influence on the development of Pavel’s interests. He was even shown on Italian television as a child prodigy solving complex math equations. Nikolai took part in all school programming competitions and always won them. He taught his younger brother a lot.
After this incident, Pavel was deprived of access to the computer equipment of this educational institution, but he managed to successfully select coded passwords to enter its portal. Pavel graduated from high school in 2001 with honors.
A year later, he submitted documents to St. Petersburg State University and entered the Faculty of Philology. While studying there, Durov was awarded presidential and government scholarships, and also won the Potanin Scholarship three times.
University teachers classified him as a student with high intellectual abilities and the makings of a leader. The future businessman always won university competitions. He tried to constantly participate in organizing various student events.
In 2006, Pavel graduated from St. Petersburg State University with honors. Studying at this institution, according to the entrepreneur himself, taught him to be independent. He couldn’t imagine himself doing routine work under anyone’s guidance.
Spbdu.ru was a platform in the format of an educational forum, where Durov often acted as the initiator of various debates and disputes. Second portal Durov.com. was presented in the form of an electronic library of university abstracts. Answers to exam questions were often posted on it.
However, Pavel Durov understood that sites for students, despite their popularity, are characterized by a low level of efficiency, because they are conducted under hidden nicknames and avatars. At the same time, the students, communicating with each other, did not suspect that they could even be students of the same faculty or group.
For this reason, Pavel decided to launch a student website of a different format. He was helped in this by his old friend Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, who returned from America after several years of study there. He introduced his friend to a similar student project existing in US universities. On this site, students posted their real photos in their accounts and indicated their real names.
Pavel Durov became involved in organizing the planned project almost immediately after studying at the university. He, together with his brother, created VKontakte LLC in 2006, launching a network beta version of the same name with the official registration of the domain vkontakte.ru on his birthday – October 10.
At the same time, Pavel was the president of this company, and brother Nikolai acted as technical director of the portal. The very first investor in the project was Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, who borrowed approximately $30,000 from his father for these purposes. In addition, he was considered the co-founder of this brand.
Durov was often accused of copying the idea of creating his online platform from Mark Zuckerberg. He partially admitted these accusations, but pointed out the fundamental differences in his portal.
In addition, the businessman himself often participated in discussions with the audience, answering numerous questions. Durov could completely change the format concept and user interface design in a day in search of the most optimal option.
At the beginning of its work, the site was closed, that is, one could register on its site only after receiving an individual invitation. However, by December 2006, the registration procedure had acquired a free format.
In the first two days, the portal was visited by over 2 thousand users. The key reason for this was the holding of a competition with an iPod awarded to the person who invited the maximum number of friends. Due to a significant increase in the number of the site’s target audience, the developers had to change the server and upgrade the network software.
Durov often received offers to repurchase his project, but he did not agree to this. Pavel decided to attract outside investors. The online service platform “VKontakte” began to develop rapidly and successfully.
At the time of 2007, it ranked 3rd in popularity among Internet sites. In 2008, this network service was monetized; the number of its users at that time was more than 20 million people.
In 2010, the headquarters of Durov’s company was located in the Singer House, located in the center of Nevsky Prospekt. The well-known newspaper “Business Petersburg” in 2007 announced Pavel Durov as the winner of the “Best Young Businessman” nomination.
In 2010, Durov decided to transform the portal “wall” on the users’ personal page into a microblog with the ability to create publications and leave likes or comments from friends under them.
However, the majority of the site’s clients were against this innovation and expressed their protest by placing on it the slogan “Durov, bring back the wall!”, as well as calls for a boycott on the portal on one of the days, so as not to enter it at all in order to significantly reduce its rating. However, just the announced day of the boycott became the most record-breaking in terms of traffic to the VKontakte website.
In the winter of 2011, he, together with Yuri Milner (head of the DST Global stock holding), developed a charity program called Start Fellows, designed to invest in startups selected through a special competition. At the same time, several startups were already provided with $25,000 in 2011.
At the beginning of 2012, Durov made a promise to the head of the Wikipedia online service, Jimmy Wales, to donate $1 million. In the spring, this money was transferred to the account of this fund.
Durov later explained that with such an act he wanted to complement the festive atmosphere on the then City Day. This idea cost him about 2 thousand dollars. Everything that happened was filmed by him on a video camera. Many were critical of this incident.
While working at the VKontakte company, Durov lived in a rented apartment near the office. Project developers often spent the night with him.
One day in May 2013, a message was received that Pavel had violated road rules while driving a car. The traffic police officer, noticing the offense committed, tried to stop the car. However, the driver did not respond to this demand. Continuing to drive, he ran over a traffic police officer, injuring his legs.
At first, the management of the VKontakte company denied the fact that Durov was involved in this incident, assuring that he was not in the car at that moment. However, the investigative authorities proved that the car in this case was driven by Pavel Durov and opened a criminal case against him. But in the summer of 2013 it was stopped and reclassified as an administrative offense due to an insufficient evidence base.
“VKontakte” – main features
VKontakte is one of the largest social networks on the Internet. At the time of 2012, this portal ranked 2nd in the Russian Federation and 26th in the world in terms of popularity. His fortune at that time was estimated at $1.5 billion, and the site was visited by up to 22 million users per day.
In the fall of the same year, approximately 140 million people were registered on the VKontakte platform. In terms of growth rates, this platform has broken all Internet records. The largest shareholder of this network was the VK corporation, which by the spring of 2011 owned 32.49% of VKontakte securities.
The VKontakte company constantly sponsored Olympiad programming in the Russian Federation at that time, and also invested in teams of programmers in the North-West Russian region and St. Petersburg. Its employees were mainly highly professional programmers, as well as international competitors in the fields of mathematics and computer science.
The investment stock corporation UCP, which owns 48% of the shares of the VKontakte company, announced in 2014 its intention to assert its own rights in legal authorities. In the statement of claim, representatives of the UCP indicated that certain actions of VKontakte leaders greatly concern them. In particular, they make various kinds of decisions not in the interests of the VKontakte company.
In response, the USM president accused the UCP fund of constant pressure on the shareholders of VKontakte and lack of desire for optimal interaction with management and the rest of the co-founders. However, this conflict did not last long and was resolved peacefully by mutual agreement of the parties.
At the beginning of 2014, Pavel Durov notified the public about the execution in 2013 of a transaction to resell 12% of his own shares to Ivan Tavrin, while he ceased to be the owner of the VKontakte online service. In April of the same year, he announced his resignation from his position as president of the VKontakte social network. The businessman cited a significant reduction in freedom of action as the main reason.
Telegram – key features
At the end of the summer of 2013, the Telegram messenger was launched on the Internet. By the beginning of winter, this project had up to 1 million clients. Giving an interview to the American newspaper The New York Times, Durov explained that the idea to organize this application came to him in 2011 against the backdrop of frequent conflicts with representatives of the Russian government. This service was developed based on a special method for encrypting correspondence MTProto, which was invented by Pavel Durov’s brother Nikolai.
Many officials demanded a ban on the use of this messenger on Russian territory, due to its policy of non-disclosure of personal data of its client base. However, Telegram’s marketing was based on users’ 100% confidence in the confidentiality of their correspondence.
But the conflict with the Russian authorities was not without a scandalous situation, as a result of which the Telegram application was blocked on Russian territory in 2018. The reason for this incident was the refusal of the messenger management to provide encryption keys.
However, during this entire period, the service platform did not stop operating. Users of the Russian Federation were able to bypass the imposed restrictions using a VPN. A large number of engineering and technical personnel provided support for the portal through the formation of individual user proxy servers. Because of this conflict, the Telegram application has become even more famous in Russia and around the world.
Pavel Durov posted on Telegram an image of the dog Spotty with a black hood over him, accompanied by the caption “digital resistance.” It is necessary to recall that this dog is considered an unofficial symbolic designation of the VKontakte social network. After some time, it began to be used as the basis of a sticker pack in the Telegram messenger, dedicated to the protection of digital progress and freedoms. The app ban was lifted in 2020.
In the fall of 2023, Durov announced a new Telegram interface design in a concept complemented by Vision Pro glasses. In this case, the user is given the opportunity to view the real space, on top of which the interface is displayed in a three-dimensional format.
Durov published footage showing that the Telegram messenger resembles a web version with a translucent interface. In this case, you can dial a voice message. Stickers appear directly in front of the user’s eyes, and video clips open on a huge virtual blackout display.
Failed attempt with TON
In 2018, Pavel Durov decided to launch a blockchain platform called TON (Telegram Open Network) with the ability to conduct trading transactions with Gram crypto assets. For these purposes, Telegram was expected to allocate more than $1.5 billion.
It was understood that using the TON application, users would be able to receive and send payments using their individual Gram cryptocurrency.
However, due to the ban imposed in 2020 by the American Securities Commission on the issuance of Gram, Durov had to abandon the creation of this project.
But over time, the project to launch TON was successfully completed by other anonymous developers. At the same time, Durov publicly stated that he wishes his followers good luck. After this message, the cryptocurrency of the TON platform increased in price by almost 50%.
Emigration from the Russian Federation
In the winter of 2013, Durov carried out a transaction to sell an equity stake in the VKontakte company. In the spring of 2014, he left the territory of the Russian Federation and in an interview with TechCrunch stated that he did not intend to return here, since he saw no prospects for running an Internet business in the Russian Federation.
He also told the public that he plans to create a mobile social network. After some time, the management of the UCP Foundation stated that for them, Durov’s resignation from the post of president was not a fait accompli. Many VKontakte partners considered Pavel to be a certain abuse of power for making such a serious decision without the consent of the board of directors.
In 2017, Pavel Durov moved to his place of residence in Dubai. He opened Telegram’s main office there, which was located in the DMC free economic zone on the 23rd floor of a skyscraper. In addition to official Russian citizenship, at that time he held passports from countries such as Nevis and St. Kitts, which he received thanks to investments made in their economic sector.
In 2018, some media outlets published information about Pavel Durov being granted British citizenship, but he himself hastened to refute it, saying that this information was fake and the machinations of scammers.
In the winter of 2021, Pavel Durov was granted UAE citizenship, and in the summer he accepted French citizenship.
Beliefs and views
Durov is an adherent of libertarian political views. He regularly advocates for fundamental reforms in the education system of the Russian Federation, the abolition of tax fees in the information industry, the visa system, military conscription and permanent registration, and the reduction of customs duties. In addition, he is a supporter of the ideas of openness of jury trials and full regional autonomy. According to his religious beliefs, he is considered both a follower of the Zen school and a Pastafarian.
In 2017, Pavel, in an interview, spoke about certain things that he completely decided to exclude from his life, as he believes that they negatively affect people’s consciousness. These include television, fast food, tea (green and black), coffee, carbonated drinks, nicotine and narcotic substances, medications, sugar, animal meat, energy drinks and alcohol.
He advised those who are engaged in creating something to adhere to the same similar life concept. However, this statement caused a resonant opinion in society.
In addition, Pavel prefers to swim in ice water to train his willpower in winter. He is convinced that many of the problems people have (obesity, stress, headaches) are primarily a consequence of their excessive consumption.
When asked how he manages to stay so young, he recommended that everyone adhere to the following principles in life:
- Stop drinking alcohol.
- Allocate more time to sleep.
- Try not to overeat.
- Exercise regularly.
- Avoid stressful situations.
- Do not eat meat products.
- Live alone.
He also added that many of the rules he listed have a completely scientifically reasoned justification. He considers the most important of them to be a complete abstinence from alcohol, and the most difficult is to allocate enough time for sleep (due to the specifics of his work).
Business principle
Pavel Durov prefers to use a tough manner of doing business. In the period from 2011 to 2012, he had a corporate confrontation with one of the largest shareholders of the VKontakte company, Mail.ru Group. The conflict broke out when this holding tried to completely absorb the company by purchasing all its shares (100%) and merging with the Odnoklassniki website. In response to this, Pavel called Mail.ru Group a “trash holding.” But these disagreements ended quickly.
In 2012, a conflict situation also occurred between the Vedomosti newspaper and the VKontakte company. Due to the technical update on the pages of the VKontakte website, users were given the opportunity to view all articles of the Vedomosti web publication without having to follow a link to them.
The editors of Vedomosti considered this factor a violation of the law and filed claims against the social network VKontakte for open violation of copyright. The management of the social network did not respond to this statement. However, after some time, active links to the Vedomosti newspaper website were disabled on the site.
As a result, the newspaper’s editors removed all widgets of the VKontakte social network from their own portal. At the same time, the general director of the Vedomosti publication brought charges against Pavel Durov, saying that he does not know how to do business using civilized methods.
Recognition and criticism
In 2011, Durov took 3rd place in the ranking of the famous Forbes magazine in the category “nine most unusual Russian eccentric businessmen” due to the publication of a photograph demonstrating an obscene gesture during the Mail.ru Group’s attempt to completely absorb the social network VKontakte.
It is worth noting that his action of throwing banknotes from an office window in St. Petersburg was seriously criticized by many well-known Russian journalists and bloggers.
The Forbes publication published in one of its issues a list of the thirty most famous business Internet sites in the Russian Federation. In it, Durov took 7th position. In addition, he was in 42nd place in the ranking of bloggers most frequently quoted in the Russian media in 2012, based on data obtained from the Medialogy holding.
The founders of the social network VKontakte considered the key reason for its rapid success to be the fact that the head of the company, Pavel Durov, had a clear understanding of the preferences of students and schoolchildren in real life.
In 2018, the entrepreneur received a special award from the Kazakhstan Union of Journalists for his own concept directed against censorship government interference in the correspondence of the civilian population on the Internet.
Children
Forbes magazine published a list of the wealthiest Russian heirs. The children of Pavel Durov took sixth place in this list. According to the publication, the businessman has 2 children from his ex-wife Daria Bondarenko – a daughter (2009) and a son (2010). Pavel met Daria while studying at the university. It is known that in 2021 she lived in Barcelona.
Interesting facts about Pavel Durov
- I left my honors diploma at the university and still haven’t picked it up.
- Holds the rank of lieutenant in the reserve.
- Maintains a work schedule from 11:00 to 01:00 with one lunch break.
- Prefers sage tea.
- Considers Steve Jobs and Ernesto Che Guevara to be his idols and inspirations.
- Fluent in Latin, Persian, Spanish, Italian, French, German and English.
- The key qualities are persistence, self-discipline and curiosity.
- Invested $1 million in the Wikipedia application.
- Prefers meditation and yoga.
- I set myself a ban on falling in love.
- He holds the citizenship of Nevis, St. Kitts, the UAE and France.
- Favorite author: Paul Graham.
