Durov founded Telegram as anti-authoritarian app

Telegram has become known as the go-to messaging app for crypto enthusiasts and political activists, with 500 million global users and a reputation for resisting government pressure. That reputation was no accident — its founder, Pavel Durov, built the app specifically to challenge authoritarian control after his own experience with the Russian government.

Durov first built VK.com, the dominant social network for Russian speakers with over 500 million registered accounts. He ran it until the Russian government pushed him out. The standoff turned him into a folk hero among internet-savvy Russians, and gave him the motivation to create Telegram as a platform that could not be easily censored or surveilled.

From college forum to social media giant

VK launched in 2006, when MySpace still ruled social media and Facebook had about 12 million users. Durov was still a student at St. Petersburg State University, where he had already built the university forum spbgu.ru. In his senior year, he teamed up with friends Yitzchak Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev, plus his brother, to build a college-oriented social network.

Mirilashvili and Leviev, along with Mirilashvili’s father, provided the seed funding. The site had all the standard Facebook features: profiles, walls, direct messaging, and personal information displays. It started as an invitation-only extension of the university forum, but quickly dropped that requirement as user numbers exploded.

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Within a year, VK overtook its domestic rival Odnoklassniki to become the most popular social network on the Russian internet. According to Odnoklassniki founder Albert Popov, VK’s willingness to tolerate explicit content and copyright violations helped it win younger users while Odnoklassniki focused on connecting middle-aged people with former classmates.

Russia at the time was in what became known as the “beefy 2000s” — a gilded age of relative political freedom and rapid economic expansion fueled by high oil prices. Entrepreneurs made fortunes creating Russian versions of Western services, and the urban creative class looked to the future with optimism as society Westernized.

The breaking point with authorities

By the early 2010s, VK had over 100 million users and strong revenue from ads and in-app purchases.

Police raided his home and the VK office.

A video circulated that supposedly showed Durov hitting a traffic policeman with his Mercedes and fleeing the scene. In late 2013, he sold his shares and resigned as CEO. He left Russia soon after, later saying he made the decision after refusing to hand over data on users involved in organizing protests in Kyiv.

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Many entrepreneurs who succeed in building one major platform rarely attempt a second. Durov did, and his personal story — the billionaire who stood up to the Kremlin — became central to Telegram’s brand identity. The app was not just a product; it was a statement about how communication tools should work.

Building Telegram on a different model

Durov had started working on Telegram, then called Telegra.ph, while still in Russia. But after leaving, he focused entirely on building a global platform for secure communication. He cited the police raid on his apartment as the main inspiration. Determined to keep the company independent, he funded it mostly from his own pocket and by selling bonds.

For a long time, he refused to sell ads. The company has recently started testing sponsored messages in some channels, but says it does not use personal data for targeting. In 2018, an attempt to raise money through an ICO ended with an $18.2 million fine from the SEC, and Telegram had to refund investors over a billion dollars.

Durov has repeatedly said the app does not surveil personal chats and refuses to comply with government requests for user data. That stance has made Telegram a target. Russian authorities tried to ban it in 2017 after it refused to share encryption keys. Iran temporarily blocked it during mass protests the same year.

The app has had security problems. Hackers breached the accounts of two Russian opposition activists in 2016, and German police infiltrated an ultranationalist group chat in 2015. Despite those incidents, Telegram remains a key tool for citizens in authoritarian countries.

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Features that set it apart

Telegram group chats can hold up to 200,000 participants, compared to WhatsApp’s 256-person limit. Its channels let admins broadcast to an unlimited number of subscribers, effectively functioning like media organizations. Some of the biggest channels have over a million subscribers and have played central roles in covering protests in Hong Kong, Belarus, and the war in Ukraine.

Telegram has been criticized for being the app of choice for terrorists. It responded by banning dozens of ISIS channels and others promoting violence, including those used by American far-right groups. Durov has said he remains committed to tolerating all non-violent content, including misinformation about Covid and vaccines.

The app has more than doubled its user base in the past three years. It is currently the most popular social media app in Russia and Germany, and ranks second in the U.S. and UK. As of January 2021, it hosts official accounts from 10 world leaders.

Durov keeps a low public profile and rarely gives interviews. He communicates mostly through Telegram and occasional Instagram posts about his digital nomad life. The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands, and his actual residence is not publicly known. Recent rumors suggest he may have received French citizenship, but his primary home appears to be somewhere in the ether.