Durov is the founder and owner of Telegram, the provider of an instant messaging app. The British Virgin Islands-based business is popular in Russia and has over 1 billion monthly active users globally. It was launched in 2013 around the time Durov sold his stake in VKontakte, Russia's version of Facebook.
The majority of Durov's fortune is derived from his 100% stake in Telegram, the British Virgin Islands-based messaging service, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure filings. It has over 1 billion monthly active users, according to Durov's Telegram post.
It's valued using average of two valuation approaches. The first is based on a market capitalization-to-monthly active users ratio of six messaging apps: WhatsApp, Line, Viber, Snap, Pinterest and Reddit. A 50% discount is applied to account on lack of data on Telegram's performance. The second uses estimated annual revenue of more than $1 billion based on Pavel Durov post on X, and the average price-to-sales multiples of four publicly traded peers: Snap, Meta Platforms, Reddit and Pinterest.
A Telegram press officer declined to comment on Durov's net worth.
Pavel Durov was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1984. After graduating from St. Petersburg State University in 2006, Durov with his brother, Nikolay, founded VKontakte social network, Russian analog of Facebook.
Over the following years VKontakte transformed into Russia's leading social network site. Durov had to sell his stake in VKontakte in 2014 after he fell out with Russian authorities when he refused to share VKontakte user data with law enforcement. He left Russia to focus on Telegram with his brother.
Telegram was initially set-up in Berlin before moving to Dubai, where Durov gained citizenship in 2017. He was made a citizen of France four years later.
By 2024, Telegram had grown its monthly user total to about 950 million people.
He was taken into custody at Paris Airport in August 2024 on suspicion of failing to take steps to prevent the criminal use of Telegram, according to a Bloomberg News report.