PAVEL DUROV is the multi-billionaire behind the instant messaging service Telegram, Russian Facebook site “VK”, and the TON blockchain platform.
But what is the story behind the Russian tech entrepreneur? Who is his wife? And what is his net worth?
Who is Pavel Durov?
Pavel Durov was born on October 10, 1984 in Leningrad, Russia.
He spent most of his childhood in Turin, Italy, where his father was employed as a university professor of philological sciences.
But he returned to Russia in 2003 to study philology at the Saint Petersburg State University.
In 2006 after graduating with first class honours, Durov founded Russia’s first social media company: VKontakte, later known simply as “VK”.
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It launched just months after Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in the US and had many similarities including its blue and white colour scheme. Durov later admitted to closely examining Facebook when making VK.
Originally the site was intended to be a place for graduates to reconnect with old classmates, but it quickly grew to be used for sharing illegally streamed music and videos, as well as school exam answers.
As the creator and founder of VK, Durov clashed regularly with the Russian state about what should be allowed on the platform. In 2011 he was involved in a standoff with police after he refused to remove opposition politicians’ pages from the site.
The tech entrepreneur sold his shares and resigned from the board of VK in 2014 after clashes with pro-Kremlin members of the companies board in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Crimea.
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He fled the country and said he had “no plans to go back” as it is “incompatible with Internet business at the moment”.
Shortly before leaving the country, Durov and his brother, Nikolai, launched the instant messaging app Telegram.
After leaving Russia pair initially travelled around the world, with no set home address before settling in Dubai.
With Telegram rapidly growing in popularity, in 2018 Durov launched the “Gram” cryptocurrency and the TON platform. It raised a total of $1.7billion before the US Securities and Exchanges Commission rules that the token had failed to comply with financial regulations and that the money should be returned.
While the regulator’s involvement brought an end to the Gram token, Durov said in 2021 that he had continued to work on the blockchain technology behind it.
He said he was “proud that the technology we created is alive and evolving. When it comes to scalability and speed, TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm.”
In November 2022 he said that he believed he could use TON to launch a decentralised crypto exchange that would replace FTX.
Does Pavel Durov have a wife and children?
Pavel Durov was once married to Daria Bondarenko.
The pair met when Durov was 19 and they were both at the St Petersburg State University.
Maksim Petrenchuk, a student who studied alongside Durov described Bondarenko has “a classic type of Russian girl and had what is known as a Russian face and a fine, ample Russian bosom”.
Petrenchuk said that the future tech genius often behaved oddly differently when in public with Bondarenko than when on his own, giving an impression he was trying to say: “Look at me, I’ve got a girlfriend.”
Durov’s peer added: “On the one hand, it was a demonstration of a kind of arrogance on Durov’s part and, on the other, it was obvious that he fretted too much about what others thought of him.”
After university Durov and Bondarenko married and had two children together, whose names are unknown. The pair later divorced.
What is Pavel Durov’s net worth?
Pavel Durov has a net worth of $15.1billion according to Forbes. His wealth comes largely from Telegram, rather than VK.
In 2022 he was named as being the richest person in the United Arab Emirates.
