Nikolai and Pavel Durov. Two Russian entrepreneurs aged 40 and 39 respectively. They are the creators and owners of Telegram, the messaging social network currently under investigation in the National Court, which operates from Dubai and hides behind opaque companies in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman. Movistar Plus, Atresmedia, and Mediaset denounced the application for violating intellectual property rights and the unauthorized use of content by users. Judge Pedraz, who ordered the block due to the refusal to cooperate and provide information from the British Virgin Islands, ended up retracting 72 hours later.
This is not the first time Telegram has tried to hide to avoid sanctions. Nikolai, a mathematician and programmer, and Pavel, an English philology graduate, who some media have already dubbed as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg, know how to maneuver behind the scenes. It was Pavel who, after finishing his studies at the University of St. Petersburg and while preparing to work as an interpreter and translator, created an online bookstore, duroy.com, where notes and books were shared. That was the origin of VKontakte (VK), a network similar to Facebook created in 2006, which was initially intended only for students, but eventually family and friends joined. In 2014, with over 250 million users, the Putin government demanded data from Ukrainian protesters. Pavel Durov, who was CEO at the time, refused, and the network was eventually blocked. Different Putin allies illegally acquired 88% of the capital and then took control. They fired Durov and forced him to sell his stake.
But Nikolai and Pavel had their backs covered. Just a few months before VK’s state intervention, in October 2013, they created and separated Telegram. In February 2014, the company was established as an independent company in London, but also opened an office in Belize, a tax haven where it could hide from Putin’s clutches. Just three years later, fearing a block and in full confrontation with Putin, the Durovs moved the headquarters to Dubai and established the parent company in the British Virgin Islands.
Although there are suspicions of ghost companies in other tax havens, the opacity surrounding the company is total. Besides the companies in Dubai or the British Virgin Islands, it is only known that it also has another entity, Telegram Open Network (TOM) Foundation, domiciled in the Cayman Islands and with only two administrators: Nikolai and Pavel. In theory, its objective is to promote blockchain technology, but in practice, its real function is a mystery, beyond trying to maintain the secrecy of its operations.
Telegram currently has 900 million monthly users, 80% more than at the beginning of 2021, when it barely reached 500 million. These numbers, however, are still far from its main competitors. WhatsApp worldwide boasts 2 billion monthly users; WeChat, the Chinese messaging application, has 1.33 billion, and Facebook Messenger, 980 million. Despite this, Telegram has received valuations of over $30 billion (around €27.7 billion at the current exchange rate) from potential investors; but Durov has ruled out selling the application and is waiting for a future IPO, as he explained in an interview with the Financial Times. He also noted that “we expect to be profitable next year, if not this year.”
The application has become in a short time a key communication tool not only for users but also for companies, as it is a secure and reliable tool. However, various media outlets accuse Telegram of not being properly regulated under any jurisdiction, which could make it a loophole for criminal activity. Critics have also suggested that the Kremlin may have links or influence over Telegram, an assertion that Durov rejected as “inaccurate” in his interview. In theory, in fact, the confrontation with the Russian government, which has tried several times to block the application, is total.
Economically, Telegram bears an annual expense of 65 cents per user. In an effort to generate income, the messaging application has introduced advertising in various regions, demanding a minimum spend per advertiser or agenda. For this 2024, it is expected that Telegram will expand advertising globally.
