Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov: the biography

Pavel Valeryevich Durov, a young Russian businessman, founder of the social network «Vkontakte». The network had huge popularity, for many, completely replacing the Internet and its understanding. Pavel Durov was not only the owner of the company «Vkontakte», but he participated in the development of social networks, conducted improvement. This caused a lot of jokes, references and memes, which further glorified the entrepreneur. The phrase «Durov, Verni wall» marked the whole epoch of development of the Runet.

Born Pavel Durov in 1984, the family doctor of Philology Valery Durov. On the Internet there are unverified opinion about Jewish Durov. The boy grew up in an intellectual family. Father in 1992 headed one of departments at the faculty of Philology St. Petersburg state University. But not all the family shared in the humanitarian bias of the head family.

Paul has a brother Nicholas, in consequence, candidate of physico-mathematical Sciences. Nicholas showed himself as a gifted programmer, a child participated in math contests and competitions and twice became the absolute world champion on programming among students. Later Nicholas would help his brother to create the famous social network and a long time will be the technical Director of the company.

Childhood and adolescence

First, Paul lived and studied in Turin, and after returning to Russia entered the Academic gymnasium. The main field of study — knowledge of the principles of Philology. In the 11th grade he became interested in programming, computer virtual projects.

After successful completion of training in the gymnasium, a young genius goes to St. Petersburg state University, philological faculty. During his stay at the University often became a fellow and laureate of the award Potaninskiy.

In addition to learning languages and a passion for programming Pavel Durov was involved in military training. Obtained the rank of Lieutenant stock. University studies continued until 2006, ended with the red diploma. Diploma Paul never took. In his youth the future millionaire decided that he didn’t want to spend every day on monotonous work in the office and determined for yourself what created for Internet projects.

Pavel Durov and «Vkontakte»

The first developments facilitate exchange of messages and useful information was conducted Durov at the University. Created library search for relevant materials, essays and a small forum of disciples became a new hobby of the young programmer.

The desire to create a practical portal for communication came after a meeting with a friend who came from abroad. The story of the social network Facebook, save full information about the users allowed to create the layout of the future Russian project, multi-user resource.

The development of «Vkontakte» Pavel Durov was engaged with his brother Nicholas. The first official registered user in the social network in October 2006. The network was initially closed and filled with members only through invitations (requests). In December 2006, the portal has started registration of applicants.

First social network was called «Students.ru». But it was soon changed to a more acceptable — «Vkontakte».

Promotion of the project and its expansion took about two years. The period of formation has allowed us to significantly improve the design and maximize the project interface. The resulting system was convenient and practical for any user. In 2008 the number of registered users of «Vkontakte» exceeded 20 million, and Pavel Durov has become a legend, which was compared with the creators of Facebook mark Zuckerberg.

In early 2014 Pavel Durov sold his share (12%) of the shares on 1 April announced the resignation of the General Director of «Vkontakte». Two days later, he denied his statement, calling it an April fool’s joke. However, on April 21, Pavel Durov still removed from the post of Director-General.

The debate about the causes of Durov’s departure from the company he founded not subside until now, the exact causes, however, is unknown.

After a long war,» Pavel Durov sold the VC, or rather his share of the company’s shares Mail.ru Group that users do not like for active imposition of ads and their side-developments than has caused a wave of indignation. The company became the owner of a controlling stake (52%). In the same year the Fund of the UCP, the owner of the remaining shares, said that the actions Mail.ru Group against the interests of «VC» and initiated a legal review.

Career

After leaving «Vkontakte» Pavel has not ceased to develop new projects. 14-Aug-2013, the year appeared Telegram. New messenger had no revolutionary features, it was different. This project Durova used special encryption technology of correspondence, which was invented by Nikolai Durov, and created a truly secure communication channel. Paul himself admitted that this idea came to his mind when one day to his house knocked on the commandos, and he couldn’t even tell his relatives about it, not being sure that his message will intercept the boss of the special forces.

The government representatives offered several times to lock the Telegram, if it changes its privacy policy, but Paul remained adamant and has officially stated that the messenger was not given and will not give out personal user data.

22 APR 2014 the information appeared that Pavel Durov left Russia and is not going to return. The businessman has published a list of demands to the country, after which he is ready to return Home. In the text there are many political and social problems of the state, so he quickly went on quotes.

According to him, work in Russia is now impossible, and abroad, he will be engaged in the development of a special social network for mobile devices. Given the huge potential of the contractor and sufficient experience, you can safely expect that a draft will get high quality and would cause a reasonable interest of users.

Paul received citizenship of St. Kitts and Nevis, but does not live there. The passport of this small state allows Durov to travel freely around the world.

In 2016 Paul came into open confrontation with the FBI. Durov again refused to give out personal user data, and the FBI broke Telegram. Now Durov developing new solutions regarding the confidentiality of correspondence and criticized the government’s actions.

Fortune, Forbes

Forbes list the actor occupies the 135th place in the rating of the richest Russian businessmen. According to the magazine, his income is equal to 0.6 billion.

Personal life

Durov holds libertarian views and support vegetarianism, according to some even became vegan. Furthermore, Paul does not drink alcohol and likes to travel.

Familiar Durov’s claim that in life he is a workaholic, and how it looks when you look at his biography. Paul is polite, reserved and doesn’t like to talk about his personal life. At the same time, we know that Paul is a big fan of beautiful girls in the Internet appeared often pictures of him with models.

The secrecy has generated a lot of speculation. It is believed that a young entrepreneur is not officially married, but to talk about civil wife Daria Bondarenko, who even bore Him two children, as claimed by some media. But if the arguments and evidence of communication Durov with a girl and you can find evidence that the billionaire became a happy father, does not exist. On pages in social networks and instagram the girl no pictures with young children, as there is no Paul in friends. He Durov my personal life refuses to comment on. The question is, who found Pavel Durov, remains open.

Pavel Durov is also credited with relations with Alena Shishkova and Vika Madame Odintsov, but confirmation of this either.

Not only the marital status of the businessman attracts attention, but also its appearance. Classmates Durov’s claim that in his youth he had a rare and greasy hair, and although Paul was never bald but had obvious bald patches. And for official pictures young businesswoman shows off great hair. This has given rise to numerous disputes. Some sources say that the actor got a head transplant. The most extravagant commentators believe that Paul wears a wig. Another argument produce ears Durov, where many see the intervention of a plastic surgeon.

Scandals

Hard temper Pavel Durov often led to controversial incidents. Thus, a wide resonance in the society caused a photo of Pavel Durov with a raised middle finger, which, according to the Creator of «Vkontakte» became the official response to the proposal Mail.ru Group to buy social network.

Not the smaller resonance caused a scandal by throwing out the window the Central office of «Vkontakte» of banknotes stacked in the form of paper airplanes. This act of Pavel Durov was severely criticized by Russian cultural figures and politicians. Paul himself admitted in an interview that had no evil intent, just wanted to create a festive atmosphere in the city day. He said that throwing money out the window and was glad to see and pandemonium, and the reaction of the people not because he wanted to prove his wealth and importance, and because they saw the surprise and the joy on the faces of the townspeople. Estimated Durov and top managers of «Vkontakte» is thrown out the window about $ 2,000. To accuse Paul of snobbery and materialism is difficult, at that time he lived in an apartment near the office and has always allowed developers to spend the night at his house.

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