14 min. reading

Updated: 01/21/2019

One of the most big tasks– 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 They like to call him a “ruble billionaire,” but this data is almost out of date: Mr.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 moves millions, but we're talking about not only about millions of rubles and dollars. He created digital country with a population of many millions (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 - important qualities 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:

• Resource Durov.com – a platform for exchange students useful information, electronic database of abstracts, 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 real circuit communication: 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 starting 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, new advertising banners.

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 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 saying that Durov “ knew how to look through the eyes of a person who has 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 for 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 user convenience (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 Russian market, and it’s hard to object to 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. Modern system education 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 different 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 Nikolai 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 about Telegram blocking, unless Durov changes his 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” don’t need a lot of communication to feel happy; the higher the intelligence, the less the need for communication. large quantities 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 healthy lifestyle ( healthy image life), during his work in 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. Real story“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.

Telegram is a popular instant messenger that provides unlimited opportunities for correspondence, voice calls, and file sharing. various types– photographs, videos, documents. The application is suitable for installation on popular mobile platforms and operating systems Oh. To date, the program has great amount channels on various topics, as well as many group chats created for communication between people with similar interests. Some of them don't even know who created telegram.

Story

The history of Telegram began in 2013, when a version for Android OS was released and the official website was launched. The messenger was developed by the team of Pavel Durov, the creator of the famous social network VKontakte. In 2014, clients for iOS and computer, as well as a web version, appeared. At the end of March 2018, the application was used by more than 200 million people and this number is increasing daily.

Installation and registration

The largest number of messenger users download the program to mobile devices with operating systems Android, iOS, Windows Phone. In all cases, the program clients are installed in the same way and have similar functionality.

To install, you should open the application store for the corresponding OS, find the program through the search bar, go to its page, start the installation and wait for the operation to complete.

To register in the service, the user will need to enter a number mobile phone, to which the account will be linked. You will receive an SMS with a code confirming activation. Next, the service will prompt you to indicate the owner’s last and first name, as well as select an avatar. Then the program will examine the phone book and determine which people have Telegram installed in their contact list. After this, the messenger is ready for use.

In addition to clients for mobile devices, there is a PC version and applications that have partial limitations, in particular the inability to make voice calls and the absence of secret chats.

Advantages of the messenger

Telegram has a number functional features, distinguishing it from a number of similar programs. Among them:

• Message encryption that protects user personal data from hacking.
• Synchronization of the account with all the owner’s devices on which the client is installed and access to correspondence from any of them, since the data is stored in the cloud.
• Support for private and group chats, in which up to one hundred thousand people can participate.
• Unlimited sharing of photos, videos and other files.
• , GIF animation and backgrounds for client personalization.

Important! The size of the transferred file cannot exceed 1.5 GB.

April 28, 2016 at 08:15 pm

The success story of Telegram - a messenger with built-in “protection” from authorities, buyers and investors

Durov stated that Telegram is located in several jurisdictions and this allows it to avoid pressure from the authorities of any country.

Bets are placed

Telegram launched when the WhatsApp application of a native of Ukraine, Jan Koum, was already popular all over the world. Another competitor, Viber, had tens of millions of users in Iran, Russia and other countries. In addition, local messengers developed in certain regions: Hike in India, WeChat in China, Line in Japan. To become noticeable in the market, Durov needed to loudly declare himself. The focus on security and the “top-secret protocol,” as already noted, played an important role.

In addition, Durov created an open platform on API based Telegram, where any programmer can create clients and their own applications.

According to Priori Data, Telegram was downloaded 2 million times on iOS and Android in Italy in 2015 (although WhatsApp still leads there and ranks first among all applications). Following users, officials and ministries began to open their channels on Telegram.

In 2015, WhatsApp was the most popular application in Brazil - according to Nielsen, it was used by about 70% of smartphone users. In February 2015, a Brazilian court issued a ruling to block the messenger, but the service was never disabled. Against the backdrop of this news, 2.5 million local residents joined Telegram. According to Priori Data statistics, in 2015 Telegram received almost 10 million downloads on Android in Brazil (versus 691,000 on iOS).

This was achieved thanks to the ZapZap service - the successful application on the Telegram API (more than 6 million downloads on iOS only). Users of such applications are considered Telegram users because they are stored on Durov’s servers. In an interview with Sekret Firmy, ZapZap founder Eric Costa said that “ZapZap gave birth to Telegram in Brazil and turned it into social network" When a user likes the app, it sends an invitation and calls to his friends - this is how it gets distributed. ZapZap has more than 20,000 user-created groups.

the Forbidden fruit

In 2014, Telegram showed rapid growth in Iran. Locals joke that the biggest migration in history has occurred - from Viber to Telegram. Due to Viber’s Israeli roots, this service was blocked in Iran, and 20 million users gradually switched to Durov’s messenger.

Iranian politicians addressed the country's residents on Telegram during the election campaign. The video of former President Mohammad Khatami was watched by 3 million users within 24 hours. “Telegram is much simpler and clearer,” political activist Ali Alemni, who campaigned for voters to join Telegram, told The Associated Press. Following the election results, the authorities named Telegram one of important channels which led them to victory.

With the growing popularity of the messenger, the authorities began to ask its authors questions. Iranian cyber police demand that servers with user data be moved to Iran and threaten to block them; From time to time Telegram becomes partially or completely unavailable. Police have already arrested administrators of 20 groups, accusing them of distributing “immoral content.”

Statements from the authorities about blocking Telegram have so far benefited him: the messenger is gaining more and more fans among freedom fighters. Statements about tightening censorship motivate users to look for more secure messengers, and first of all they think about Telegram.

Telegram has attracted new users several times due to news events related to competitors. This happened when in 2014 Facebook announced the purchase of WhatsApp and the messenger turned out to be unavailable due to an influx of users for an hour and a half. Some users pointedly announced that they were leaving. On that day, 5 million users registered with Durov.

Right to privacy

Telegram launched on English language targeting an international audience under the slogan “Taking back our right to privacy.” Over time, this inscription disappeared, and now Durov uses a more streamlined formulation: “New era of messaging.” This may be due to the fact that WhatsApp launched full end-2-end encryption and became more secure.

To confirm the security of the messenger, shortly after the launch of Telegram, Durov announced a competition: he would pay $200,000 to the one who hacked his correspondence with his brother in a secret chat.

In December 2015, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave regular Telegram chats a security rating of 4 out of 7, but secret chats - 7 out of 7. “E2E or server-side encryption in our case makes little difference. Our cloud chats are encrypted locally on our servers so that local authorities cannot have access,” Durov said in response to Sekret Firmy’s question about what percentage of users use secret chats.

Durov became the first to launch such encryption. Users associate the phrase “secure messenger” with Telegram. Durov opposes the authorities, but officials especially love his messenger. The Information wrote about members of the San Francisco government who prefer Telegram because it is better protected.

Trick or treat

No matter how Durov promotes new service, many of those who try it become true fans. Telegram's file and message transfer speeds are higher than others, which can be significant for residents of countries with slow Internet.

Telegram appeared as part of the non-profit organization Digital Fortress and was launched with Durov’s money. He is still financing the project alone, having earned about $300 million from the sale of his share of VKontakte. According to Durov, costs amount to more than $1 million per month.

Telegram's immediate plans are to make money from third party applications, with whom you can share income in the same way as is done on VKontakte. In one of the interviews, Durov said that he was thinking about monetizing bots.

While Durov is developing the service with his personal money, the load on the servers is growing and growing as the user base increases. He stated that Telegram cannot be bought and cannot even be invested in the project. However, according to Secret, several Silicon Valley venture funds approached him with offers of investment.

Starring

The most detailed instructions for Telegram for people who are just about to install it.

What is Telegram?

So, Telegram, what is it? — free messenger for smartphones and PCs running all the most common operating systems today, allowing you to exchange not only text messages, but also various media files (pictures, music, archives, text documents etc.)

How to start communication and what are groups (Group)?

Telegram provides the ability to communicate with one or several people at once. If you simply click on a user's name, you can chat with them one-on-one. Other users will not be able to read or join your conversation. To communicate with a large number of people you need to create a group. There can be two users in a group (you and someone else. However, unlike a chat, in the future you will have the opportunity to invite other interlocutors to the group) or much more. To be more precise, the limit on the number of users in one group is 5000(!) people.

Is correspondence in groups visible to everyone?

No, only group members.

How to become a member of the group?

Only by invitation of someone who is already a member. In the Telegram itself, to invite participants, you need to click on the name of the group - Add member - Select the people you want to add. Otherwise, with rare exceptions, no way. This exception is the ability to create a temporary link to a group. Only the group administrator can create such a link. He can do this in order to invite people to the group who are not yet Telegram users or are not registered in his contacts. If you have such a link to the group, follow it and click join.
If you are an administrator and want to create such a link for your group, then to do this you need to: click on the group name - Add member - Invite to Group via Link - copy Link or Share Link. Send the link where the person you want to invite can see it.

Are there any Telegram groups specially created for meeting people united common interests or living in the same region (city).

Eat. And they are called supergroups. You can find a list of groups that will be happy to have you as a member: ( Interest groups) or ( City and regional groups. Groups for residents of any countries). If you haven’t found anything that suits your interests or there is no group for your city (region) in Telegram yet, you can create such a supergroup yourself. To do this, you must first create a regular group using the command in the New Group menu, and then use the Upgrade to Supergroup function in the group settings. Don't forget to add it to our group directory so that as many people as possible know about it.

I heard that Telegram is the most secure messenger, is that true?

One of the most protected. To protect against surveillance, Telegram uses own development- cryptographic protocol MTProto. Without knowing its keys, attackers will not be able to read your correspondence with anyone. However, the data about your correspondence, although encrypted, is still stored on Telegram servers. Note that this approach In addition to the disadvantages, such as the potential for hacking keys and gaining access to your messages, there are also many advantages. For example, you will always have access to your correspondence from any location available to you. this moment devices. In addition, you can always be sure that valuable messages that you want to save will not go anywhere. If this is not enough for you and you want to completely protect yourself, you can use the function secret chat(Secret Chat). This is a chat in which messages are stored exclusively on the smartphones of its participants (the so-called “ end-to-end encryption") and are deleted from all devices after a certain period of time (which is up to you to decide).

You said something about the fact that you can send not only text messages but also different files?

Right. For this:
-If you are using the version for a smartphone, click on the paperclip to the right of the field to enter a message (Message)
-In the PC version, click on the camera icon to the left of the text entry field (Write a message...), and then, depending on the type transferred file select either the camera again - to transfer the photo, or a paperclip to transfer any other file.

What else does Telegram have that distinguishes it from other messengers?

There are also so-called channels and bots.

What are channels??

Channels are chats that act as mass mailings. This could be: a feed with updates to any of your favorite sites or public pages (For example, @lastmag), a blog of a famous person (For example, Yuri Saprykin - @forevernotes), someone’s channel created to inform their subscribers about updates to their pages in social networks, thematic channels created specifically for Telegram (For example @historyporn), etc. Key Difference from groups is that you can only read the channel (of course, if you are not its creator) and share publications from it with other Telegram users. There is no function for replies, likes or comments in channels.

What are bots (Bot)?

A distinctive feature of Telegram from other instant messengers (WhatsApp, Viber, Hangouts, ICQ, etc.) is the presence of bots with which you can diversify your communication with other people (for example, the Quiz bot), follow updates from various media and other sources of information ( for example @Meduza), play games (for example turn-based strategy Endless Summer), solve some everyday problems (for example a cooking bot with recipes that can be filtered based on the ingredients you have on hand, or getting weather information), etc. Essentially, this means that this messenger can be a useful program for you even if you don’t have a single person you know who uses it, because in addition to communicating with friends, Telegram provides a wide range of opportunities for its users, which are sometimes not related in any way with communication.

How to manage these bots?

Using commands. The list of commands is usually located to the right of the input window
messages and is indicated by either a “/” or four small squares within one large square. There are also other control methods. But don't worry. All of them are intuitive and you can easily understand them.

Okay, but how can you now search in Telegram for all these channels and all these bots that you talked so much about?

Where to download Telegram?

We advise beginners to download Telegram only from the links provided on the program’s official website. Alas, everything on the official website is in English and there are no instructions on how to change the program interface to Russian. All this is on our website on the Download Telegram page in Russian. All links we provide to setup files identical to links from telegram.org.
Note that there are many Telegram-based alternative messengers having both their pros and cons regarding official version programs. We think that if you need to use unofficial versions of the messenger, you can easily find them in the application store installed on your device.

How to register?

You just need to provide your phone number. Wait for the SMS message to be received and enter Telegram code which will be indicated in it.

Is this all free?

Yes. Installation, registration, and use are absolutely free. Like all other Telegram functions. The exception is some bots related to the provision of various services(for example calling a taxi). But, in this case, you do not pay for using Telegram, but for the service itself.

How to invite your friends to Telegram?

Telegram synchronizes with yours phone book, thanks to which you can send an invitation to your friends to Telegram via SMS. There are also other methods, the number and variety of which depend on the applications installed on your smartphone.

A stickers (Stickers) what are they? Is this some kind of food?

Of course not! Stickers are sets of pictures that can replace some words or even sentences when communicating with friends. With their help, you can diversify your conversation, please the person with a beautiful picture, congratulate him on something in an original way, or simply cheer up your interlocutor.

Where can I get them?

You can download those that your friends already have. Or choose your favorite ones from our catalog.

Why is the application not Russified (there are also no Ukrainian and Belarusian languages)?

The developers are in no hurry to add Russian to the application interface (as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian). But you can do it yourself. To do this, use the following bots:
-Russian
-Ukrainian
-Belorussian
Next: Download the resulting file (click on the arrow icon). Click on the three dots on the right top corner messages. In the menu that opens, select “Apply localization file”, then find the one you need in the list of languages.

Is that all now?

The program is constantly updated and acquires new functions. But at the moment - yes! This is the basic information that will be enough for you to start using Telegram and feel like a fish in water. We can also advise you to read our tips for Telegram users that will make your time in the messenger even more comfortable. Have a nice chat!