meet Russia's Mark Zuckerberg Pavel Durov is the founder of Europe's most successful social network VK and the creator of the encrypted messenger app telegram here's all you need to know about the Russian entrepreneur and billionaire including how a SWAT team inspired do tough to come up with telegram why he likes to pass shirtless just like Russian President Vladimir Putin and where he was forced to leave his home country behind and give up the social network VK find out now on tech titans tech titans pavel valya judith was born on october 10th in 1984 in the
soviet union in leningrad which is now st. Petersburg but he actually spent most of his childhood in Italy his father who has a PhD in philology was employed in Turin when dunas family moved back to the home country the Soviet Union no longer existed even as a kid merav already showed his advanced computer skills legend has it he hacked his school's computer network by the way through diffusion only wears black and some say he's a programmer on a mission very much like the protagonist of The Matrix neo-kowloon of went to st. Petersburg State University the
alma mater of many famous Russians judo studied linguistics and graduated in 2006 he reportedly never picked up his diploma that's probably because he didn't need it right after University at the age of 22 he founded the social networks contactor which translates to in contact there's little to nothing known about pavel gurus private life in fact he seems to be married to his work [Music] VK is essentially the russian version of Facebook that's why Judith is also known as the Russian Mark Zuckerberg gurus later founded the messenger app telegram Mark Zuckerberg acquired whatsapp around the same
time the Ches popularity skyrocketed within a couple of years but the network also got the roof into trouble with russia's President Vladimir Putin here's why in 2011 the platform was used to organize massive protests against regiment Putin Putin had just announced that he would run for president again the country saw some of the largest protests since the fall of the Soviet Union to crackdown on the movement Russian authorities urged Judith to delete a position groups from BK as expected from a tech savvy CEO Rudolph's response came via social media the entrepreneur shared this photo as
his official response irresolute no however his attitude towards Russian authorities and his refusal to cooperate came at a cost a few years later Durov was forced out of his own company where Timur Putin's allies took over be cake duro sold his remaining stakes and fled Russia in 2014 here are three things you might not know about Pavel Durov during one of Duras run-ins with the authorities and Russian SWAT team showed up at his doorstep he feared they would try to break down his door and called his brother I realized I don't have a safe means
of communications with him that's how telegrams started this is telegrams logo a paper airplane back in 2012 Pavel Durov and his friends threw money out of the window of the case headquarters in st. Petersburg they folded the bills into little paper planes Allah Durov has denied a connection between the event and his company's symbol the local still remains many people in Russia of that day in 2017 the billionaire started a Putin shirtless challenge on social media poking fun at the Russian president it's fair to say that do defend the Kremlin almost likely never become friends
fast-forward to now today VK has over 600 million accounts most of them in post-soviet States in Russia VK has actually more users than Facebook as of April 20 2010 has 400 million monthly users but that is still a lot less than competitor whatsapp with 2 billion users worldwide Pavel and his brother and business partner Nikolay doodles launched telegram in 2013 for many the cloud-based messaging service is a more secure alternative to Watson featuring secret chats and even a self-destruct timer for accounts and messages many have praised the secure messaging system but its very nature has
made it the go-to app for terrorists and criminal organizations pudding do roof in hot water and of course there's the neverending conflict with the Russian government something doodle can't get away from not even in exile when Rudolf refused to cooperate with the Russian security services they try to block access to telegram doodle didn't want to give them telegrams encryption keys fun fact Russian government officials are using telegram themselves because of its high level of security for some Putin opponents in Russia Dourif is kind of a hero for standing up against the authorities Judith can afford
to upset Putin as he and a small team work outside of Russia in 2014 due roof also obtain citizenship of the Caribbean island states and kids and nervous after working from New York San Francisco London and Berlin Durov is now based in Dubai he's still a mystery man he's always been he rarely appears at public events or speaks to the media Durov seems to prefer to communicate through his own telegram channels after all the F is his crown jewel doodle says is even paying for telegram out of his own pocket according to Forbes his net
worth is around 3 billion euros but who knows how long that will last what do you think about Pavel Durov and are you using telegram let us know in the comments thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe [Applause] [Music]
