Telegraph from Durov: how does the Telegram messenger differ from WhatsApp? Telegram: what is this program.

21.07.2019 Reviews

Pavel Durov's US-registered company Digital Fortress released the Telegram messenger this week. The application, which is still only available for the iOS operating system, has already made a lot of noise, and the founder of WhatsApp, Ian Koum, even accused Durov of blindly copying someone else's product. Durov, in turn, calls Telegram in its current form an intermediate experimental product, which will still change and at the moment, rather, is necessary to test the operation of the ultra-secure MTProto protocol, developed by Durov's brother Nikolai. The founder of VKontakte names four differences between Telegram and WhatsApp: security, message transfer speed, data storage in the cloud with synchronization between devices and the ability to add a significant number of functions. In addition, according to Durov, his application "is free and will always be so." WhatsApp charges one dollar a year to use.

But how significant are these differences for the user? To answer this question, Forbes compared the work of WhatsApp and Telegram.

Settings / Profile

Both services allow you to separately configure notifications for messages and group chats, both offer to set the background for the conversation window (from the suggested pictures or your own photo), both offer to automatically save the received photos to the phone's memory.

There are also differences, and they, as a rule, are not in favor of Telegram. Durov's product currently does not allow you to import your photo from Facebook, or send the history of any dialogue by mail. It is worth remembering, however, that this is the first public version of Telegram, while WhatsApp Inc. was founded back in 2009.

Posts

Dialog windows are remarkably similar in appearance. Both apps have a customizable background, double green check marks to confirm the status of a read message. The functionality is also the same: any message can be copied, deleted and forwarded. In both WhatsApp and Telegram, you can send not only text messages, but also photos, videos, and also indicate your location.

The most noticeable difference is in speed: text messages arrive almost instantly in both cases, but when attaching photos, Telegram has some advantage. Especially when dealing with slow mobile internet. Although, perhaps this is due to the lower load on the service: WhatsApp now has 300 million active users.

Multiplayer chats

The differences between the two applications are especially pronounced when working in chats. If WhatsApp has a maximum number of participants in one conversation is limited to 50 users, then Telegram can have up to 100 people in one chat. The mechanism for adding people to the chat is also different. For WhatsApp, only the creator of the chat can add newcomers, for Telegram - all its members.

Chats handle heavy loads in different ways. We arranged a kind of “crash test” for both services: about ten people sent as many short messages and photos as possible within a minute. iPhone 4 with open WhatsApp chat during the crash test completely stopped delivering messages, did not respond to pressing on-screen buttons and only vibrated to notify of new messages. In Telegram, the same iPhone, under similar loads, delivered messages with some delay, but unlike its competitor, it retained its functionality and still allowed you to read and write messages, view photos, and download them.

Attaching a photo

Another tangible difference is the interface for attaching images. In WhatsApp, you can only select photos one at a time by looking at their previews. In Telegram, in the preview version, you can expand the photo to full screen by pressing before selecting, and special checkboxes allow you to select several photos at once. In addition, if you slide your finger over the preview versions, all that the user touched will be marked.

Unique opportunities

Telegram has a built-in function to search for images on the Internet: if in a conversation you wanted to convey your emotions not in words, but, for example, a frame with a pleading cat from “Shrek”, you can do this in a few seconds by entering the appropriate request. For search, the Bing service is used, in WhatsApp you can add photos only from those available on the smartphone, but in addition to text messages, you can also send voice messages.

Many smartphone users are familiar with the Telegram messenger. And who does not use probably heard about the application. And many people know that the creator of Telegrams is Pavel Durov, known to a wider audience as the creator of Vkontakte. In this article we will find out who Pavel Durov is, what is his biography and what is telegram.

Biography facts

Born October 10, 1984 in the city of Leningrad, but went to school while living abroad - in Turin, the cultural center of Northern Italy.

The founder of Telegram Pavel Durov is an extraordinary person. Since childhood, he was very different from his peers, thanks to an inquiring mind and restless character. There is a case that proves this.

At the age of 11, when Durov became interested in programming, he threw out the following - on all computers in the class, he put on the screensaver a photo of a computer science teacher with the inscription “Must Die”. Although he was denied access to the use of computers, he hacked into them.

Pavel studied well and achieved success in everything he undertook:

In 2011 he graduated with honors from the academic gymnasium.
Received a scholarship from the Government of the Russian Federation for achievements during his studies at St. Petersburg State University, where he received his education in the field of philology.
Then he will receive a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation.
Three times he was a laureate of the Potanin scholarship.
Thanks to his high intellect and vigorous activity, he became one of the selected students of St. Petersburg State University.
In 2006 he completed his studies at the institute with honors.
He graduated from the military faculty of St. Petersburg State University and became a reserve lieutenant.
In 2007 he was recognized as the best young entrepreneur in Russia.

With age, the character of the creator of Telegrams did not become docile, because of this, scandals with his participation periodically flare up in the press:

In 2012, Durov, along with his VK colleagues, threw airplanes with five thousandth bills from the office window. And then he filmed people who rushed to pick them up. Such an act caused public disapproval.

In 2013, he did not stop at the request of a traffic police officer and ran over him. The case was closed due to lack of evidence.
In 2017, I threw the smartphone of a video blogger out of the window, who just wanted to take a photo with him.

The telegram creator and its messenger app are inextricably linked in the minds of smartphone users. But it all began, of course, with the well-known social network Vkontakte.

While studying at the institute, Pavel created various portals where students could communicate. But he was worried that everything was happening anonymously. People may communicate and not even know that they are studying at the same faculty.

In 2006, Durov learned about the existence of social services. Facebook, where users uploaded their photos, wrote information about themselves and communicated not anonymously. Then he came up with the idea of creating Vkontakte, which was at first called Student.ru.

In the same year, Pavel and his brother Nikolai will register Vkontakte LLC. And they are doing well:

Over the first few days, more than 2 thousand new users appeared on Vkontakte.
A year later, the service was in third place in popularity among all Runet sites.
In 2008, the number of Internet users exceeded 20 million.
Due to the restriction of his freedom of action, as Durov himself put it, since September 16, 2014, only Mail.Ru Group has owned the social network Vkontakte.

Pavel Durov's Telegram messenger

What is Telegram messenger, and who created it became clear. Here are some interesting facts about creating an app:

The idea of creation came to Pavel in 2011. Then he thought about developing a completely confidential messenger.
The application was presented in August 2013.
In November, the program reached 1 million downloads.
In 2015, officials demanded to ban Telegram. To which Paul replied with his categorical “no”.
As in the case of VK, his brother Nikolai helped Pavel in the development of Telegrams. It was he who created the MTProto data encryption system.

Also, a whole team of programmers is working on the program, which everywhere follows the one who invented the Telegram. The fact is that Durov does not like to sit still and constantly travels, moving from one country to another.

So, if you were wondering who founded Telegram, now you know the answer and even more. Here is such a difficult and interesting person Pavel Durov. Telegram-creator will surprise the public more than once with its antics, and the application will delight us with new updates.

In 2013. The first launch took place in August. Since then, the app's audience has grown to 100 million. The scandalous and loudest messenger of recent years can now be used on different platforms. Let's find out what Telegram is and how to use it in more detail.

History of creation

The idea of creating a messenger with protection from viewing correspondence by third parties came to Pavel Durov back in 2011. Cooperating with his brother, he developed the first version of the messenger and showed it in 2013.

Already in October of the same year, the official version for Android was presented and the official website of the program was opened. Clients of the program for other operating systems began to appear in November. By the end of the year, Telegram already had over 1 million users.

In the summer of 2014, the first official version of the messenger for the iOS platform appeared. At the same time, a version for computers and a web client are released. Because of this, the audience of the service is growing sharply.

In 2016, the owner of the messenger said that the number of program users had reached 100 million. The number of daily messages is 15 billion, a record number for its segment of mobile messengers. Over the past few years, large companies have tried to buy the project several times, and the creator has been threatened and banned many times by the authorities. However, all this does not interfere with the existence of the messenger for 6 years and active development in the future.

Now you know what Telegram is. And how to use it - we will tell you below. Let's take a closer look at the clients for each of the supported platforms.

For mobile devices

The largest audience of the messenger exists precisely within the framework of mobile platforms. The program client can be installed on devices running Android, iOS, Windows Phone. In all cases, the functionality and interface of the application are almost identical to each other, and the download / installation procedure is approximately the same. Let's figure out how to use the "Telegram" on the phone. The first step is to install it.

To do this, connect your mobile device (smartphone or tablet) to the Internet and follow these steps:

Go to the Play Market for Android, App Store for iOS, and Microsoft Store for Windows Phone.
In the search box of any store, enter the name in Russian or English.
Go to the page with the application from the search results.
Click the Download or Install button.
Wait for the program to finish installing and run it.

registration

Now launch the application from the menu or desktop. Next, you need to register a personal account. Before using "Telegram" on your phone, enter your mobile number.

An SMS message with a confirmation code will be sent to the phone. Enter it in the appropriate field in the application. Everything is ready! You can use the messenger.

On the left side there is a menu button through which you can get to settings, the list of channels, friends, and so on. On the main screen of the application, press the search button in the form of a magnifying glass icon and enter the name of your friend, under which he is registered in the messenger. After that, click on it to start a dialogue.

In correspondence with people, you can use:

text messages;
voice messages;
Photo and video;
stickers and emoticons.

Apart from the usual one-person dialogues, here you have the ability to create massive chats, channels and bots. Initially, the application will be in English. You ask how to use the "Telegram" on the phone in Russian? It's simple: go to Settings from the side menu, select "Russian" in the Language field. The changes will be applied automatically.

How do I create a chat or channel?

Chat and channel creation is available on all platforms. Chat is a conference for communication of several people. At the moment, the number of people can reach hundreds or more. To create such a conference, do the following:

Go to the menu.
Click the New Group button.
Select future participants from the list.

To create a channel, follow the instructions:

Access the menu via the side button at the top.
Select Create Channel.
Enter a name and description for the future channel.
Select the type of channel - public or private.
Enter the link that will be used to go to the channel.

Unlike groups and chats, in a channel, people will not be able to communicate. This community is an analogue of publics from "Vkontakte": users can subscribe and receive notifications about new posts.

How to use Telegram on a computer?

There are two use cases on a computer: a full client and a web version. In the first case, the program is installed on your hard drive, and in the second you must go to the site in a browser and log in. Through the web version, you are limited in the functional set, while through the full-fledged program you can use all the possibilities, even change the external design of the interface. Let's figure out how to use Telegram on a computer in both ways.

For the web version, open the link https://web.telegram.org/#/login in your browser and log in. To do this, enter your country and your phone number. A message with an authorization code will appear in the application on the phone. Through the version on the site, you can chat with friends and create groups.

Installation

To install the full version of the software, go to https://tlgrm.ru/apps and select the version for your operating system. Before downloading, you will immediately see information about the features of the PC version. So you can find out what Telegram is and how to use it on your computer. There are no secret chats in the PC version, but all the rest of the functionality is in place. After downloading the installer, install the software and log in from your account. The procedure is exactly the same as in the case of the web version of the messenger. Before using the "Telegram" in Russian, set this language in the settings (Settings). The official version supports Russian translation.

Why are bots needed?

A separate item is worth noting bots in Telegram, since no other similar project has such a "trick". They open up new possibilities and application of the messenger in practice. Let's figure out how to use a bot in Telegram.

A bot is a program that performs certain actions at the request of a user. In many ways, they resemble bots from the outdated ICQ. Using commands or menus, you can ask him to perform an action. Basically, all bots are thematic: assistance to drivers, search for authors of books, entertainment, music compilations, and so on. At the same time, they are completely safe and are not used to hack user profiles. To join a smart assistant, just find it in the search, go to the chat and press Start or write a similar command (/ start). After that, a tooltip will appear with all the commands and capabilities of this assistant. Now you know how to use a bot in Telegram. There are a lot of such assistants in the messenger, so be sure to try working with bots on various topics!

Outcome

We figured out what Telegram is and how to use it. This messenger is by far the most promising, functional and, what is most important for many users, safe among all competitors. Despite all its capabilities, the program manages to be simple and understandable for every user.

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Telegram is free, with which you can communicate with other users, exchange files of different formats and different sizes.

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Let's consider the principle of the program using an example.

Gennady is a new employee in the sales department. Its tasks are to conclude contracts with consumers, deliver ordered products, write invoices, acts, tax invoices. The work is mobile, but every day you need to submit a report to the supervisor, at the end of the week - to the head of the department. All this is implemented using the Telegram communicator. An employee from the office quickly issues invoices for payment, tax and delivery of goods and sends them to employees in the fields for transfer to customers. The order is collected in the warehouse by the message sent. Reporting is also sent remotely. Time is saved, work is done promptly. Help from colleagues and managers is always available.

The program was developed by Pavel Durov, a Russian programmer and one of the authors of the popular VKontakte network. The messenger uses a special encryption protocol MTProto - Nikolay Durov's own development. Protection is applied to both message transmission and user authorization. Security at a high level is also maintained due to the fact that the servers where user data are stored are located in different places on the planet: London, Singapore, San Francisco.

The service is provided free of charge, its creators have invested their money in its creation for the sake of free and safe communication. They do not have an official website, high-profile advertising campaigns, their pages in popular social networks. The messenger is promoted by clients. If you have any questions, you can contact the developers on Twitter, where, although rarely, they communicate.

The number of accounts in the system exceeded 180 million as of the end of 2017. About 600 thousand participants are added every day. The messenger received the greatest popularity in the countries of the Middle East region, South America, Germany, Italy, Spain. The application works in 13 languages. It is a competitor to services such as Viber, WhatsApp, etc.

What is Telegram for?

What can you do in Telegram? The application does not just allow you to instantly exchange messages with other members of the service. Its functionality is much more. The best features of other common messengers and our own unique developments are provided to customers, and completely free of charge.

With the help of Telegram you can:

Chat online with users around the world, including high quality audio calls.
Send and receive files of various formats (photo, audio, video and others) with a volume of no more than 1.5 GB.
Create group chats with up to 200 participants, including classified ones. The latter are possible thanks to encryption. A useful addition, which ensures that the correspondence will not become known to strangers, even if the phone gets to them, is the self-destruct timer. When activated, after a certain time, messages will be deleted from the chat and the phone and server memory. Moreover, if a photo of the screen with the message is taken, the sender will receive a notification about this.
Organize communication in super groups - up to 10 thousand people. There is an administrator who can moderate posts and apply restrictions to participants.
Use usernames - the function allows you to find a person without knowing his phone number.
Find interest groups and participate in their discussions.
Record and forward an audio message.
Create your own channels for viewing. Any content can be found here, from business webinars and political discussions to recipes and children's entertainment.
Listening to music is free and even without the Internet. For this, a media player has been developed with an intuitive interface and a wide range of functions.
Use cloud data storage from the service. Any files (volume and quantity are not limited) are sent to the remote server using the favorites tab and forwarding to themselves.
Send, create yourself, download stickers for free (unlike other messengers).
Send photos found in search engines without saving to the device's memory.
Use automated helpers - bots.

Advantages

The messenger has a number of advantages. Among the main ones:

High speed of work - despite the location of servers in different parts of the world, delivery of a message will take a split second.
A clear, classic program interface that can be designed in different styles: choose from ready-made options or apply your own.
Automatic addition of a list of service users from the phone book.
Easy to get started. You only need a phone number to register.
All functions and features are free.
Innovation - the service is constantly being updated. Its capabilities are expanding both taking into account the proposals of competitors, and by its own developments that have no analogues.
High level of security and protection against hacking of the account and correspondence.
Unlimited for everything: the number of messages sent per day, the amount of files uploaded to the cloud, the time of use.
Compatible with all major operating systems, including mobile.

Flaws

Of the main shortcomings that have been identified and have not yet been eliminated, one of the main ones can be considered the fact that communication with the technical support service is conducted only in English. Until recently, the interface did not have Russian language support. Russifiers were used for adaptation. The issue was resolved in October 2017, and Russian is one of the possible options for choosing.

The exclusive protection of correspondence and the refusal to provide the authorities and law enforcement agencies with the content of the conversations, is the reason that communication of terrorist groups, the sale of drugs and other activities prohibited by law takes place through this communicator. This generates discontent among some people and accusations against the company of complicity with criminals.
The inability to control and stop the distribution of illegal information leads to the blocking of the program in some countries. Thus, restrictions were imposed in China during government strikes and rallies and in Iran for refusing to assist in surveillance.

Despite the high security measures, part of the information about the user can be obtained - his phone number. This does not contribute to the complete anonymity of the profile.

Comparison with competitors

Let's try to figure out how Telegram differs from others and which application to give preference to.

The most widespread communication program, owned by Facebook since 2014. For a long time it was paid, after a free annual period, the cost per year was 99 cents. WhatsApp instantly forwards text messages and files and can be used both from a mobile device and from a computer via the website. Simple and straightforward. In these moments, it is similar to Telegram. However, the latter is updated more often (every three days, not once a week), allows you to change the interface design, its technical support will respond faster. The safety is higher. And only in one parameter WhatsApp is in the lead - the number of registered customers around the world. It will be possible to communicate with almost all of your contacts - they, with a high degree of probability, have this program.

Viber

One of the most popular communication services. It surpasses WhatsApp in functionality. You can make a video call, you can call a mobile phone even if the subscriber has not installed Viber (paid function). There are both familiar chats and interest groups. Each of the chats can be distinguished by a different design. Convenient and fast login is possible from Facebook. The interface of this messenger remains unchanged for a long time, and updates are carried out on average once a month - less often than in Telegram. No file transfer. It is inferior in safety and speed of response to calls to Viber technical support.

Features of Telegram

In a number of possibilities, the service has bypassed its closest competitors. The main ones are:

There is a two-way opt-out option - to send messages, the recipient must agree to communicate. It protects against unwanted spam.
All history in the cloud. Even if the program is reinstalled (for example, a failure in the phone), then the previous correspondence will not be lost.
After adding to an already running group chat, the entire communication history is available from the very beginning. There are convenient filters to search for files, photos, links.
It is convenient to send all contact details from the phone book.
You can add hashtags and search for information of interest on them.
Forwarding several messages from the chat at once.
Active link - this opens a chat with the person who left it. In other messengers, you first need to create a contact, only after that you can communicate.
Chat invitation - you can send a link by which a person will be included in the group if he wants to join.
Quickly record, send and listen to a voice message. Recording begins when the phone is brought to the ear, and with one click, it is sent to the addressee. The audio message is played back in the same way.
Voice recording duration up to 60 minutes. For comparison, Viber - 30 seconds, WhatsApp - 15 minutes.
Automatic saving of the printed message during a break in the work with the program (incoming call, other actions).
The mobile application takes up 2-3 times less device memory than other instant messengers.
Wider administrator rights in group chats.

In these and some other moments, Telegram is confidently leading. In many ways, the choice of service is determined by the habit and preference of the social circle. However, more and more people prefer this particular communicator, assessing its capabilities.

Protection from strangers

This item is one of the most important for the creators of the Telegram messenger. Users can be sure that their chats and transmitted data will not be available to anyone. Relevant against the background of fairly frequent reports of hacking of mail and other correspondence in other services. Moreover, they will not even be opened at the request of government agencies. This is also confirmed by the words of Edward Snowden, who repeatedly gained access to the most secret documents and correspondence. But not in this messenger.

Client information and files are stored encrypted on the company's servers, with different codes applied to different parts of the data. It will take some work to decipher them. Moreover, clusters of information are located on servers located in different countries. Removing information from one of the data centers, for example, from law enforcement agencies, will do nothing. You can get only the part for which the message cannot be restored. And there are no rights to act in other countries. The time of message retention is also limited. It is impossible to restore it after deletion.

To reveal possible errors in protection and coding, a competition is held every year with a solid reward - up to 300 thousand dollars. It will go to someone who can reveal the content of a particular chat. This is how the security of the system is checked so that if problems are found, action can be taken. So far, no one has succeeded in fully implementing this.

The biggest criticism of the security of this system so far is that the registration is carried out with the indication of the phone number. This does not make communication completely anonymous. On the other hand, this is an additional check - when you log into your account from a new device, an SMS with a verification code is sent to it. If the device with the installed service is lost, you can block the operation of the program on it remotely through a special website.

How to use

Where to start and how to create a Telegram account? Let's consider the main points. To work, you need a computer, tablet or smartphone with the operating system Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Win, Mac OS or Linux.

The program must be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. No registration is required, only a code sent to the specified mobile number. Contacts are automatically pulled from the phone book. For those who are not yet in the program, you can send an invitation.

Editing your profile and settings will take a couple of minutes. You can download, name, selected nickname and get to work.

Useful tools

In addition to the usual chats, group communication, transferring and viewing files, there are special tools. Their use makes it possible to expand the capabilities of the service and provides customers with additional convenience.

Channels

In a messenger, there is such a thing as a channel. It is online or recorded content that is transmitted unilaterally - from author to audience. Broadcasting is one-way, there is no possibility to add comments. Each has a name and a link to find it among others. For example, telegram.me/The world of fashion - trends from world couturiers and trends of the season.

In the Telegram channel, you can transfer the content of another site or social network, make your own adjustments and messages from the administrator. It is quite easy to create your own channel, the main thing is to fill it with interesting videos and news. The user can specify viewing parameters in the settings. There are two options: channel updates will be shown in the chats section - just like messages from ordinary people; or silent mode. Then you can go to the channel and see what's new at any convenient time.

Channels can be both public - for everyone, and private - access is opened by the administrator upon request.

The relevance of the service is evidenced by the fact that even Pope Francis opened his own channel for instructions and short sermons of parishioners. It is significant that the Pontiff had previously used WhatsApp for these purposes.

Bots

These are special virtual assistants controlled by the program. They can perform a variety of actions on request: find exchange rates, convert documents, show weather forecasts, Google analytics, news, program schedule and a lot of other information. It is possible to set up their work on a convenient schedule - performing an action at a specific time.

There are two types:

Regular - commands and search queries are sent to them.
Embedded - allow you to search without leaving the chat, and upload search results to it. For example, a bot with the @gif name will suggest pictures by keywords entered after its name.

You can create your bot by following the prompts.

Telegram for business

More and more companies are promoting their business on the Internet. Websites are being created, work is underway on social networks, on forums. Messengers are no exception. Business in Telegram has received additional opportunities for communicating with consumers.
Numerous methods are used for promotion, including:

Bots or a live person to support customers on emerging issues.
Channels for business - informing about new products, promotions, videos about the use of goods. You can get closer to clients by telling about yourself, your work and projects, the channel is quite suitable for these purposes. Interesting content increases popularity, encouraging people to recommend it to others for viewing.
Creation and distribution of stickers for brand promotion.
Communication within the company - setting tasks, discussions, reports, plans. Applicable both at the level of the entire company and by department. A bonus in the form of secrecy and the inability to intercept important information by competitors.
Document flow - storage and access to the necessary documents. It can be quickly and conveniently organized using cloud storage.
Online catalog - using a bot, selects a product directly in the application.
Acceptance of payments. Payment systems available: PaymentWall, Stripe, Yandex.Checkout, Paycom. You can buy what you like right away and without switching to other applications - quickly, conveniently and increases sales.

Taking into account the fact that Telegram is a service only gaining popularity, it is the right move to start promoting your company in it. There are not many competitors here. Most of them still use other applications out of habit: Whatsapp, Viber, Skype. Therefore, messages will not get lost among many others. A youthful and advanced audience, functionality, security and the absence of any payments make Telegram one of the most modern tools for business.

14 minutes reading

Updated: 21/01/2019

One of the biggest challenges is to be yourself in a world that is trying 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 (CEO) of the Telegram messenger.

At the age of 31, Mr. Durov was included in the Forbes rating of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia. They like to call him a “ruble billionaire”, but these data are practically outdated: Mr. Durov is approaching a new title - “ dollar billionaire". From 2016 to 2017, its capital increased from $ 600 million to $ 950 million. Now he is in the TOP-100 "richest people in Russia-2017" at the 100th position (Forbes).

Pavel plays with millions, but this is not only 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 Paul put his mind to work, start his own business, and be successful? The biography of Pavel Durov will tell us about this.

Family and childhood of Pavel Durov

Durov Pavel Valerievich was born on 10.10.84 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).

One of his great-grandfathers was a nobleman, the other was a farmer, both subsequently lost their property.

The head of the family, Valery Semenovich Durov, Doctor of Philology, headed the department at St. Petersburg State University. Mother, Albina Aleksandrovna, grew up in Omsk, where she learned their language from the German immigrants. 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 the upbringing, parents " set an example of optimism and diligence 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, was an adult and lived separately) and Nikolai (born in 1980). It was Nikolai who set a worthy example for little Pavlik. The elder brother grew up as a smart little boy, at the age of 3 he read “Popular Astronomy”, and at the age of 7 he “clicked” cubic equations. Pasha was gifted differently, often drew the guests of the house and deftly caught the similarities.

In 2015, on Twitter, congratulating his father on his birthday, Durov Jr. will note:

My father taught me and my brother the values of perseverance, honesty and hard work.

Hard work and dedication are important qualities of a successful person.

Study in elementary 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 an ordinary 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 arose 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 a junior school student. Pavlik could make a remark to an English teacher, reproaching him for incorrect pronunciation. In the 4th grade, Pasha is fond of programming, together with Nikolay he creates programs on his first computer 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 benevolent "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 expands the perception of the world, promotes career growth. Durov has 9 foreign languages in his piggy bank, he can easily support 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 clever people like himself. Nevertheless, classmates described him as a non-team student, claiming that he "always found a way to be separate." The journalist Nikolai Kononov, whose biography belongs to Durov, will come to the conclusion that Pavel "was known as a sociopath because there were few people at school who wanted to talk to."

In 2001 Pavel Durov graduated from high school with honors, did not make it to the "gold", was awarded a silver medal. On the question "who do you want to become", the graduate joked - "Internet totem". In principle, he became one - an idol, a symbol, a totem of the most popular Russian-speaking social network.

University years

In 2001 Pavel becomes a student of the same university as Kolya. The elder brother is studying mathematics and programming at St. Petersburg State University, and Pasha chose the specialty "English Philology and Translation".

Philology student becomes a university activist. " Pavel spoke in a low voice, 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, will speak about Durov's leadership charisma. Paul is included in the ranking of students with the highest level of intelligence. For outstanding achievements, he is awarded a government scholarship, awarded the scholarship of the President of the Russian Federation. Durov has been awarded 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 abstracts, term papers, etc.
The site spbgu.ru is a forum for SPbSU students. Here Durov intuitively “groped” the future concept of “VKontakte” - he simulated a real communication scheme: when creating a profile, students indicated their real name and surname, department. “I tried to kindle the fire,” admits Pavel, who threw hot topics into the forum for discussion. "We had to create the illusion of a critical mass."

While working on these non-commercial projects, Pavel saw that power comes not only from money, but also control of information. Keeping websites taught him the idea of the absence of bosses. . He strives to work for himself, and not for the "uncle".

In 2005 with the rank of "reserve lieutenant", Durov graduated from the "military service" with a specialization in "Propaganda and psychological warfare". In 2006 - he left the "alma mater", earning a diploma with honors.

Foundation and development of "VKontakte"

After graduating from 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 in America the growing popularity of the social network Facebook, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg. Having learned from Delovoy Petersburg about the SPbU 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 relevant for him personally with 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 brand name of the portal quickly, in 3 minutes typing in the font "Tahoma". He chose colors that “ do not piss anyone off "- blue, white and gray.

The site has not become just a "Facebook clone". Durov argued that they "never copied without using the brain."

The friends did not have any 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 stake.

FIRST STEPS OF THE SITE

In 2006, the number of visitors to the 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 bit more, and one could be late. Durov started a personal page with "idi" at number 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 get 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 - those who can do something, and not talk.

Actions, not words, lead a person to success.

Durov resolutely dismissed those who raised any doubts. His brother Nikolai worked with him. He solved the 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" from the "Delovoy Peterburg" publication, and in the same year the Runet's popular vote put the portal in second place. The resource of that time was non-commercial, without advertising, and that was fundamentally different from other Internet endeavors.

VKontakte begins to interest potential buyers, but Pavel does not want to sell the development, instead attracting investors. The first financial sponsor was Yuri Milner, Chairman of the Board of the Digital Sky Technologies investment fund. The VKontakte team remembered the Internet investor 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 was over 20 million registered customers. This year the site is monetized, advertising banners appear.

In 2010, the headquarters of the company moved to Nevsky Prospekt 28, to the building of the Singer company. The web developer removes the top two of the six floors of the building for the headquarters of the company. Later, he will buy a huge space - a squat on Nevsky 65, where it will be possible to spend the night and his earned employees. Pavel himself did not want to get attached to anything, 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 did not look into the office before 12 noon, he worked in his own mode, until 3-4 in the morning.

In 2011, having in his pocket already 7.9 billion rubles, the programmer gets into 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 “ I knew how to look through the eyes of a person who has an old browser and a slow Internet. "

In 2011, Durov, as the best founder of a Runet startup, was included in the TOPs of Forbes. However, Pavel is not limited to creating a startup, he decides to finance them. By the end of 2011, six startups received $ 25,000 each on a competitive basis.

Pavel does not limit the VK audience and dreams of entering the European market. In 2011, the domain goes to the abbreviated address vk.com, which is easier for residents of other countries.

In 2011, a photo of Pavel Valerievich showing an obscene gesture was posted in Forbes. The eccentric hero is in third place in the rating of extravagant and eccentric businessmen, to whom the press has already attributed and.

This gesture, instead of a thousand words, was 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 other shareholders about the deal - Durov and Mail.ru Group.

Life in exile

In December 2011, after protests against the falsification of the election results to the State Duma, FSB officers recommend that Durov 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 came to visit Durov. Durov shared with The New York Times that the idea to create Telegram (Durov's next product after VK) dawned on him at the very moment when these trained guys approached his apartment.

They had weapons and looked very serious. They seemed to want to break down the door

Durov stands for 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 claims for non-compliance with copyright. In 2010, the state television and radio company VGTRK was the first to take VK to court for illegal posting of its content on the website. After 2 years, singer Sergei Lazarev warned that he would sue for pirated content on VK. Durov informed on this 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 to check for pirated content:

On January 12th, during the Digital Life Design conference, Paul announced to Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, his intention to sponsor the encyclopedia. After 3 months, the programmer benefited the Wikipedia project for $ 1,000,000. The philanthropist believes that money “ overrated because creation is much more interesting than consumption. "

Pavel Durov initiated the VK Cup championship for programmers. In 2017, this open youth tournament (from 14 to 23 years old) is being held for the fourth time.

One of his posts on the social network Twitter, dated May 9, read: “People are walking. Still - 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 commentary 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 in peacetime without trial and investigation.

2 On 27.05 on the day of the city, the VK managers, together with their boss, launched paper airplanes with 5,000 banknotes attached to them from the windows of the central office. Under the headquarters of the VK, the townspeople gathered, who arranged a scuffle for the bills. Durov was bombarded 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 of St. Petersburg, but “ I had to quickly stop - the people began to become brutal».

RISE 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 event,” the case was dropped, then resumed, and in 2014 it was closed again.

In December 13, the FSB of the Russian Federation asked the head of VKontakte for the personal data of the organizers of the Euromaidan communities. The general director of the social network refused to provide information. He appreciated the trust of millions of Ukrainian clients of the resource, and considered the release 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 material "anchors": furniture, property, stock. In 2014, he parted ways with 12% of VK, selling them to his friend Tavrin (media manager, former head of Megafon). 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 Mail.ru Group's policy was detrimental to the interests of VK and began legal claims.

The "X" hour struck 03/21/14, when Pavel made a statement "on his own." It was signed a month later: “ Probably, in Russian conditions, something like that was inevitable, but I am glad that we held out for 7.5 years. "

On April 22, 2014, information appeared that Pavel Valerievich left his homeland. The former CEO considers his departure final. To the reporters of the website TechCrunch, he commented that there is no road back for him: Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.

The founder of the portal calls VKontakte the best thing that has been created in the field of communication on the Russian market, and it is difficult for him to object. The facts speak for themselves: the growth of the startup's 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-speaking segment of Facebook and Odnoklassniki. The resource is visited monthly by more than 97 million people (data of April 2017).

LIFE OF PILIGRIM

The programmer named 7 conditions under which he could return: these are reforms of courts and education, simplification of laws, economic autonomy of 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 honest 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 places of residence, form their teams through established friendly and family ties, as a result of which low-literate and ineffective employees can occupy important positions. It also affects the country's corruption and economic development. We need to introduce transparent mechanisms and direct elections to government posts.

4 Tax haven on raw material export earnings. Russia is rich in natural resources. It is necessary to free the underdeveloped sectors of the economy from taxes and shift their burden to the well-developed raw materials industries. This will help attract investment, even out the development balance and give an impetus to the economic development of the entire state.

5 Economic autonomy of regions. It is necessary to change the structure of taxation in such a way that the bulk of regional taxes remain in place, and not redistributed, as it is now, to the capital.

6 Abolition of feudal remnants. The freedom of consciousness of the population is the basis of the progress and economic development of Russia, which is currently hindered by the slavish consciousness formed due to military service, the institution of registration, the need to issue a separate passport for travel.

7 Destandardization of the education system. The modern education system limits the consciousness of the younger generation, forms stereotyped views. We need flexibility, non-standard training programs that will educate free and creative individuals.

In his VK profile, the column “political convictions” is “libertarianism” (a direction that prohibits “aggressive violence”).

Now I am very happy, living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world.

Paul has the citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he received it for investments in the country's economy. The passport of this state in the Caribbean Sea with a population of 50 thousand allows you to travel freely 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 of 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 different formats. The messenger is made with an emphasis on speed and safety.

Telegram allows you to add funny pictures - stickers to your posts. A feature of the stickers in the application is the absence of a background, due to which the illusion of a sticker is created.

The messenger for users is free, but Durov is not cheap. Pavel - "2 in 1", is both the founder and sponsor of Telegram. Each year, Durov funds approximately $ 12 million in it. He warns against excessive obsession with money: “ boring work with dull cowards, having to lie and betray your world - these are just a fraction of the price you pay for an excessive desire for paper. "

Telegram uses a special message encoding method developed by Nikolai Durov. The server part uses the capacities of the US and German companies. Durov's project was developed on the assumption that "all communication channels are tapped." “Even our system administrators cannot access the user's 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 launches in Europe.

In November 2014, the application had about 1 million installations (according to TJournal), after a couple of months - already 35 million.

In 2014, The New York Times named the entrepreneur Russian. The programmer admits: My dream is to overcome the national inferiority complex by proving that products from Russia can be in massive demand all over the world.

In 2015, there was talk about the sale of Telegram to Google Corporation (for $ 1 billion), but Durov denied the information about the deal.

In February 2016, another reason for celebration appeared: Telegram reached the 100 million mark. active users per month.

Representatives of the Russian government have warned about blocking Telegram if Durov does not change his anonymity policy. But the fundamental concept of Telegram implies the security of correspondence, Pavel refused to give out information about users.

FSB officers said that when planning the explosion in the St. Petersburg metro, which occurred on April 3, 2017, Telegram was used as a communication channel. Messenger has been named as a way of communication for terrorists.

“Privacy is ultimately more important than our fear of bad things like terrorism,” the creator of Telegram said in an interview with TechCrunch. "ISIS will always find other ways to communicate."

At the request of Roskomnazdor in May 2017 to provide information for registering the messenger, its founder refused. In June, Durov nevertheless sent information, warning that there could be no question of further issuing personal data of clients.

Pavel Durov encrypts his personal life no less carefully than his Telegram correspondence. Little more is known about her than the donut hole. On pages in the Internet, he does not upload a photo with his beloved, and it is not known if there is one. The heart connections attributed to him (with Alena Shishkova, Vika Odintsova, Daria Bondarenko) are unverified. Pavel does not post pictures of his beloved, instead he shares photos of the beautiful places he visits.

Personal life and worldview of Pavel Durov

Pavel's love for black in the wardrobe, to which he is not indifferent since his university days, is also noted by the European media: "all-black wardrobe" - they laconically comment. offered "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 has received over half a million likes on VK!

The image of the figure in black got over half a million likes on VK

Pavel is a member of the Mensa community, which includes people with an IQ that exceeds the intelligence level of 98% of the world's inhabitants. Psychological studies show that “smart people” do not need a lot of communication to feel happy, the higher the intellect, the less the need for a large number of friendships. Maybe that's why in 2017 Durov "cleaned" his friends on social networks and subscribers of the Youtube channel? “We must not be afraid to get rid of outdated ideas, connections, jobs.

Pavel does not speak on his cell phone (“it’s outdated, it’s too intrusive”), admires Che Guevara and. He is a vegetarian, indifferent to drinking. Pavel is an active supporter of a healthy lifestyle (healthy lifestyle), during his work in VK advertising of alcohol and cigarettes was prohibited, because he considers them to be the strongest drugs. He also considers love to be 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 network authority says this about its main aspiration:

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” “Durov's Code” was presented. The real story of VKontakte and its creator "by Nikolai Kononov, editor-in-chief of Hopes & Fears. The rights to film the book about Durov were bought by AR Films. Earlier it was reported (2012) about the release of the film at the end of 2017, but since that moment the circumstances have changed a lot. In the preface to the publication, the writer Yuri Saprykin noted: "The hero of this book does not fight for freedom - but asserts it by the very fact of his existence."

Pavel Durov is a representative of a new generation of motivated businessmen.

Not only 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 subtle entrepreneurial vision. He is hardworking, determined, loyal to his principles and values freedom very much. He, of course, is not a sociopath or a totem, but a person who has a lot to learn from. 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 gives you real pleasure, and then you will become much happier.