Meet Telegram's founder, Pavel Durov, who is the richest man in Dubai and is also known as the 'Russian Mark Zuckerberg'. Here are some exciting things about this famous young billionaire.
Pavel Valeryevich Durov, better known as Pavel Durov is one of the wealthiest people in the world. The Russian-born French-Emirati businessman is the founder of Telegram, which is a globally accessible freemium instant messaging app. Durov launched Telegram on August 14, 2013, and after ten years, it is one of the most famous apps in the world. In July 2023, Telegram surpassed 800 million monthly active users.
Over the years, Pavel Durov has made many changes in Telegram, and his vision and risk-taking ability have made this messaging app surpass the likes of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in so many countries. However, apart from being the founder of Telegram, there are a series of things that people should know about Pavel Durov, who is the richest person in Dubai.
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Whether we talk about his journey from Russia to settling in Dubai or his fashion quotient and luxury lifestyle, Pavel Durov is a secretive person, who prefers to keep his personal life away from the media limelight. However, there are still some interesting facts and figures about Pavel Durov that every person needs to know. So without much delay, let’s head straight to the story!
Pavel Durov was born on October 10, 1984, in Leningrad, Russia, but he spent most of his childhood days on the streets of Turin, Italy. Durov’s father, Valery Semenovich Durov, is a famous Russian academic, antiquarian and philologist of his time. However, there’s not much information about his mother, Albina Durov, on the internet. As per reports, Durov has a brother named Nikolai Durov, who is a mathematician.
Coming to Pavel Durov’s educational qualification, he completed his graduation in Philogy from the famous Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. If the reports are to be believed, Durov started coding when he was in school. When Durov was in school, he reportedly used to do pranks on fellow students with the help of coding.
It was in 2006 when Pavel Durov kick-started his journey as an entrepreneur when he founded the social media networking service, VKontakte with his brother, Nikolai Durov.
The Russian-language social network was a hit as it gave Russian people a taste of the famous social media platform, Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg. However, with time, the Durov brothers made some major changes to the site, and it started to rise exponentially.
Unfortunately, in 2011 and 2012, Pavel Durov’s VKontakte got tangled in a series of controversies. There came a point when the Russian government told Durov to remove the pages of opposition politicians from VKontakte. Things got quite messy, and Durov left Russia in 2014 and stated that the country wasn’t ready to get into the internet business.
Many thought that it was an end to the bright story of Russian Mark Zuckerberg, Pavel Durov. However, he launched Telegram in 2013, and despite many people predicting that it would be a big flop, it turned Durov's doubters into his believers. As a result, after bidding farewell to VKontakte and Russia, Durov put all his energy into making Telegram one of the world's biggest messaging apps; no wonder he succeeded in what he manifested.
For the unversed, Pavel Durov is the richest person in Dubai. The entrepreneur settled in Dubai back in 2017 after moving from one country to the other in search of a perfect spot that hits home.
The entrepreneur decided to settle in Dubai, courtesy of the citizen-friendly tax policies of the UAE. The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov is living a lavish life in Dubai, and his Instagram handle is proof of the same.
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As per reports, Durov lives in a sprawling 5-bedroom villa which is spread around 15,000 square feet. If the report is to be believed, Durov pays 85,000 USD per month as rent for the property.
The property is located within the famous Jumeirah Islands. For the unversed, Jumeirah Islands are a housing development in Dubai, which is one of the most expensive places to live in the world.
One of the most interesting things about Pavel Durov is the fact that he only wears black. Whether it’s a shirt, suit, pants, or trousers, Durov has all his clothing in the colour black. As per reports, Durov’s fashion quotient is inspired by the fictional character, 'Neo' (played by Keanu Reeves) from the film, Matrix.
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Talking about the wealth of Pavel Durov, as per multiple reports, the young billionaire has an estimated net worth of 11.5 billion USD. Currently, the entrepreneur ranks at the 150th spot on the Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List.
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