When the Telegram app was first launched, it only had message and file sharing features and availability only for the iOS app store download. In April 2014, Durov resigned and sold his 12 percent of the VKontakte company and left Russia for good. Things started to get wrinkly for Pavel Durov as he fled the country to avoid an unnecessary arrest, and the other two VK co-founders sold their 48 percent combined stake to a company owned by a well-known Putin ally.ĭuring his time away, he resurfaced to the public with his Telegram - the new mobile messaging service rivaling WhatsApp. But because the website grew a permissive approach over liberal beliefs and free speech, it quickly positioned itself as an endangerment to the Kremlin system.ĭuring its years as a CEO at VK, Durov was bombarded with requests and even threats from the Russian authorities to shut down certain pages on the social media platform.ĭurov refused, claiming that business is more important than politics to him. It is the second most visited website in the country. VK social platform is sort of like Russia’s Facebook. Pavel started VK in 2006 and has been chief executive for 7 years before resigning in the midst of an intricate chain of events. Pavel Durov, the current CEO of Telegram, is also the founder of the Russian social network VKontakte or VK. The two brothers founded Telegram back in 2013 while they were still residing in Russia.

Telegram is owned by its founders: Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov. The massive bulk of new users came from Asia (38%), Europe (27%), Latin America (21%), and around 8% signing up from the Middle East and North Africa.

In mid-January 2021, Telegram won 25 million users in a timespan of only 72 hours. In the wake of a major WhatsApp controversy around privacy policies, Telegram has been exponentially growing its notoriety. Founded by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, it is one of the most used messaging platforms out there, with over 500 million users worldwide.

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