Telegram to hit 1-billion users within a year, says founder Pavel Durov

The Telegram messaging app, one of the most popular social media platforms, is expected to cross 1-billion active monthly users within a year as it is spreading like “forest fire”, says its billionaire founder Pavel Durov.

Telegram, based in Dubai, was founded by Russian-born Durov, who left Russia in 2014 after he refused to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on his VK social media platform, which he sold.

“We'll probably cross 1-billion monthly active users within a year,” Durov, who owns Telegram, told US journalist Tucker Carlson, according to a video interview posted on Carlson's account on the X social media platform.

“Telegram is spreading like forest fire.”

Durov, who is estimated by Forbes to have a fortune of $15.5bn (R295.9bn), said some governments had sought to pressure him but the app, which has now 900-million users, should remain a “neutral platform” and not a “player in geopolitics”.

One of Telegram's main rivals, Meta Platforms' WhatsApp, has more than 2-billion monthly users. The Financial Times reported in March Telegram was likely to aim for a US listing once the company reached profitability.

Telegram, which is particularly influential in the republics of the former Soviet Union, is ranked as one of the major social media platforms after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and WeChat.

After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Telegram has become the main source of unfiltered — and sometimes graphic and misleading — content from both sides about the war and the politics surrounding the conflict.

Durov said he came up with the idea of an encrypted messaging app as a way to communicate while he was under pressure in Russia. His younger brother Nikolai designed the encryption.

Durov said he left Russia because he could not accept orders from any government and dismissed a question about claims that Telegram was controlled by Russia as a false rumour spread by his competitors worried about Telegram's growth.

“I would rather be free than take orders from anyone,” Durov said about his exit from Russia and search for a home for his company which included stints in Berlin, London, Singapore and San Francisco.

He said the bureaucracy, especially for hiring global talent, in those places was too onerous and he was attacked in San Francisco by men who tried to steal his phone.

More alarming, he received too much attention from US security agencies, including the FBI. He said US agencies tried to hire one of his engineers to find a backdoor into the platform. The FBI did not reply to a request for comment out of US business hours.

When it comes to freedom of speech, though, he said the biggest challengers were not governments but major competitors such as Apple and Alphabet's Google.

“Those two platforms, they could censor everything you can read, access on your smartphone,” Durov said, adding they had told Telegram if it failed to comply with their guidelines it would be removed from their stores.

He said he had opted for the UAE as it was a “neutral country” that wants to be friends with everyone and was not aligned with any of the superpowers, so he believed it was the best place for a “neutral platform”.

Telegram was used by opposition campaigners and governments but would take no sides.

“The competition of different ideas can result in progress and a better world for everyone,” Durov said.

Beyond money or bitcoin, he had no major property such as real estate, jets or yachts as he wanted to be free.

Reuters