15 tips from Russia's most eccentric millionaire Pavel Durov. He shares the secrets of his success with everyone.

If you were to conduct a survey “Who is the most eccentric millionaire in Russia?”, then most of the answers would probably be: “ Pavel Durov».

He was really remembered by many for his original actions (for example, throwing banknotes over St. Petersburg on the day of the city), harsh statements, at least about the same World War II, tough defense of his business interests, peculiar political and religious positions.

But be that as it may, the creator of the largest Russian social network VKontakte deserves to be studied by those who strive for success.

Why exactly Pavel Durov?

For me, reading biographies famous people is one of the most rewarding activities.

This is the only way to understand that everyone can achieve success, earn a lot of money and leave a mark on history.

That you need to be not a magical creature or super-lucky, but a smart person who works hard, looks for new ways of development and is constantly learning.

The success story of Pavel Durov illustrates as clearly as possible that one can become a ruble billionaire not thanks to inheritance, not thanks to someone's help, without resorting to illegal actions.

You can achieve everything only thanks to your own talent, which does not dig into the ground, but develops.

Well, of course, without studying market trends and understanding which startup will bring unprecedented profits, it could not have done.

The childhood of Pavel Durov

The history of the name of Pavel Durov is not simple.

His grandfather, being a hero of the Great Patriotic War, suffered from the repressive Stalinist system after the end of hostilities.

His son, Valery Semenovich Durov, fortunately, did not have to answer for the sins of his father and he was able to make a good career: he studied classical philology, became a doctor of science, and wrote many scientific papers.

He even got the opportunity to work for a couple of years in Turin (Italy), where his son Pavel became a first-grader.

After returning to Russia, Pavel Durov is engaged in general education school, but very soon both the teachers and the boy's parents realize that he is an unusual child who has nothing to do in a standard school, so he is sent to study at the Academic Gymnasium.

Here they studied all disciplines according to the extended program, taught 4 and developed the hidden talents of their students.

So, at the age of 11, Pavel Durov understood what he wanted to do: programming.

It was in the Academic Gymnasium that the extraordinary character of Durov was revealed, his love for eccentric pranks and dislike for harsh discipline was formed.

However, this did not prevent him from getting an excellent secondary education.

Where did Pavel Durov receive his higher education?

At the university, Durov showed himself as an extraordinary student: he won the All-Russian Olympiads, was awarded the Government and Potanin scholarships, organized various events, repeatedly showed leadership skills, embarrassed teachers with his level of intelligence.

Naturally, the best student with a red crust graduated from St. Petersburg State University, which is still gathering dust in the dean's office.

In parallel with his studies at the Faculty of Philology at St. Petersburg State University, Pavel also received the rank of lieutenant, becoming interested in the topic of propaganda and psychological warfare.

Neither philology nor military affairs worked out for Pavel Durov, but programming still attracted him relentlessly.

How Pavel Durov founded VKontakte?

The brainchild of Durov the student was the sites Durov.com, Spbgu.ru, where students could communicate, hiding behind nicknames and avatars, as well as an Internet database of essays and coursework, which greatly facilitated the learning process.

But Durov wanted people to be able to contact online using their personal names, sharing photos and important events in life.

A friend who returned from America told Pavel that American students are crazy about the Facebook social network, and Durov's brilliant mind seized on this idea.

So, on October 1, 2006, with the light hand of Pavel Durov, the social network VKontakte appeared.

The brainchild made its founder a truly rich man, and until 2014 Pavel Durov's fortune increased at a rapid pace.

At the end of 2013, Pavel Durov was forced to leave the leadership of VKontakte and say goodbye to his own block of shares due to pressure from the FSB.

In 2014, he already started working on a fresh mobile social network.

About the success story of the creator of the most popular social network

in the post-Soviet space

see also in the video:

Pavel Durov is not a greedy person, so he willingly shares the secrets of his success with everyone who wants to hear him.

Here are the 15 most interesting, in my humble opinion, tips from Pavel Durov:

You need to find something that will bring you pleasure.

Doing your favorite work and getting paid for it, you will become truly happy.

Clear your life of garbage.

By "garbage" Durov means cigarettes, alcohol, junk food (Pavel has been a vegetarian for many years).

Subdue your time.

Learn to manage your affairs in such a way that everything is in time and that most of the work is done without your direct participation.

Read as much as possible.

It will surely change your life for the better.

Learn foreign languages.

At least you should know English perfectly, in our age it is a vital necessity.

Do not be afraid to part with those employees, friends and acquaintances who do not suit you.

The success of the project largely depends on how good a team you form.

1. It is very important, when setting a goal, to form it briefly, as accurately as possible and visualize it on paper.
2. If you want to be successful in modern world Learn in one lesson for as long as possible.

Don't waste time.

Weekends should also be spent with benefit: visiting museums, theaters, playing sports, visiting parents, reading good book or watching an interesting movie.

Learn to get up as early as possible.

For an adult healthy person, 7 hours of sleep is enough, everything else is laziness.

3. Spend a minimum of time on the Internet, TV, following the news, it’s better to do something useful.
4. Learn something new every day to expand the horizons of your knowledge.
5. Travel as much as you can, this is a great investment.

Go in for sports.

Do you want to go to the fitness room? No problem!

Do something more interesting: rock climbing, diving, skydiving, cycling, etc.

6. There are no obstacles that cannot be overcome.

   We build all barriers and restrictions ourselves.

Today Pavel Durov does not live in Russia.

He travels a lot, is still subject to criticism, which he does not pay the slightest attention to, continues to implement new ideas and earn money.

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First, Pavel Durov showed himself as an outstanding copyist by creating his own Facebook in Russia. Then he demonstrated that protest was not alien to him: Durov was ready to challenge both a large investment fund and, if necessary, the special services. Now he may have to become an inventor for the first time.

Forbes presents a new video project - Invest Like a Billionaire. Earning a large fortune is not easy, but it is much more difficult to maintain it and even more so to increase it. Investment bankers and analysts spoke to Forbes about how the world's richest people have achieved success and how their investment strategies and business approaches differ. The hero of the seventh episode is the creator of the "Russian Facebook" Pavel Durov.

In 2007, Pavel Durov, a graduate of the philological faculty of St. Petersburg State University, shared on his own social network VKontakte the story of how it came about. According to him, the durov.com projects (answers to exams in the humanities) and the spbgu.ru university community first appeared. There was only one problem: everyone used nicknames and no one knew who was hiding behind them; All communication took place in virtual reality. Then a friend of Pavel, who returned from the USA, told him about Mark Zuckerberg's social network, and soon his own Facebook appeared in Russia.

Then, in 2007, Pavel wrote that he was not going to leave the project. Seven years later, after a conflict with the first investors and the UCP fund, he told why he sold his stake in VKontakte: in this way he realized the idea of ​​“getting rid of property” - furniture, real estate, companies. Pavel sold VKontakte shares to his friend Ivan Tavrin. And he, in turn, resold them to the UCP fund, which was already an investor in VKontakte, and after this transaction gained control in the company.

Unlike the companies of other heroes of our project, there is no information about large investments by VKontakte. This is logical, given that the company itself was eventually bought by the Internet holding Mail.ru. However, in 2011, VKontakte launched a grant program for technological projects, the winners of which were, for example, the University Schedule application and the mobile online broadcast service.

Paul went his own way. He launched the Telegram project. The idea was again suggested to him by Western colleagues. Telegram is an analogue of the messenger bought by Facebook for $19 billion. It was because of this project that the relationship between UCP and Durov finally fell apart. According to Durov, Telegram was created independently, according to the investment fund - using the resources of VKontakte.

Now Pavel has another conflict, though not with investors, but with the FSB. Durov does not agree to give the secret services the encryption keys from the chats, arguing that such keys simply do not exist. The FSB does not agree that someone does not agree with it. As a result, Telegram is blocked in Russia, but access to it can be obtained thanks to VPN, which Durov actively encourages to use.

Thanks to this scandal, Telegram became popular abroad as well. The project raised funding through ICO - now this process is almost not regulated by the legislation on securities. The MIT Technology Review wrote a review of the Telegram white paper: "Bold, but lacking in ideas." Telegram promises to solve all the problems that interfere with this stage development of blockchain technology, but does not tell how exactly. And since no one in the United States or anywhere else has the answers to peep, Pavel Durov may have to become an inventor for the first time. We'll be happy if he succeeds.

In 2006, Pavel Durov, a then-unknown graduate of St. Petersburg State University, came up with the social network VKontakte, in 2007 he managed to collect 3 million subscribers on its platform and attract large investments to the project. In 2013, he sold his share, gave up his position as CEO, and left with a team of programmers abroad. Now he lives in the EU and Singapore, working on improving the Telegram messenger and other Internet projects. In 2016, he was noted in Forbes as one of the richest entrepreneurs in Russia.

The era of business based on the notorious "entrepreneurial streak" is in the past. per century information technologies the era of creative innovators is coming. The story of Pavel Durov is an example of the achievement of true recognition of a computer genius and the triumph of reason and perspective thinking.

Pavel Valerievich Durov- a representative of a new generation of entrepreneurs, a brilliant programmer, whose fortune at the beginning of 2017 was estimated at $ 0.6 billion according to Forbes. The history of the creation of a computer genius business shakes the hearts of many young people.

Interesting fact: The age difference between Pavel Durov and his brainchild, the VKontakte social network, is exactly 22 years. A unique and ambitious IT project for the CIS countries was launched on October 10, 2006 - just on the 22nd birthday of its creator.

In 2016, Pavel Durov entered the Forbes 200 list for the first time. the richest people Russia”, taking 135th place. His name is known to the world, thanks to the VKontakte social network and the Telegram messenger, as well as a bright, mysterious and, moreover, scandalous personality.

In 2014, the ruble billionaire left Russia, arguing that it was impossible to develop an Internet business in this country. Now he continues to work on innovative IT projects in Europe and Singapore.

Pavel Durov has been a vegetarian for many years, denies the possibility of using political violence (libertarianism), and is inspired by the examples of Ernesto Che Guevara and Steve Jobs.

How did this brilliant and extraordinary person manage to turn bold dreams into real business? How did the computer genius achieve his success? It's time to reveal the facts of the story of Pavel Durov - "Russian Mark Zuckerberg".

How geniuses are born - the childhood and youth of Pavel Durov

Pavel was born and raised in the family of a Doctor of Philology. FROM early years showed a craving for new knowledge, demonstrated extraordinary thinking and a rebellious spirit.

The desire to win in the competitive struggle appeared in him as a child, when in terms of success and achievements he did not want to lag behind his older brother, the erudite Nikolai Durov.

Since Pavel's father worked in Turin for 5 years, the boy began his schooling in Italy. When the family returned to St. Petersburg, he was sent to the Academic Gymnasium. The reason for this is the in-depth study of all subjects and the teaching of four foreign languages.

Interesting fact: Durov was one of the best students, but this did not stop him from hacking into the computer network of the gymnasium and posting on the screensavers of computers a photo of the hated computer science teacher with the provocative inscription "Must die".

It is noteworthy that in the biography of Pavel Durov there is no information about his education in the IT field. The gymnasium was followed by:

• St. Petersburg State University and a diploma in philology of English language;
• Military faculty "Propaganda and psychological warfare".

He studied computer science and programming only as an ordinary subject of the school curriculum.

In his student years, the excellent student Durov demonstrated not only a high level of intelligence - he actively participated in the life of the university; showed leadership qualities. During the years of study, he was awarded three times a scholarship from the V. Potanin Foundation, scholarships from the President and the Government of the Russian Federation.

Interesting fact: In 2002, Pavel launched two non-commercial Internet projects at St Petersburg University: Durov.com (library of abstracts and scientific articles) and Spbgu.ru (student discussion forum). It was Spbgu.ru that became the first signs of the future social network VKontakte.

The history of the formation of VKontakte - how was it?

Durov worked tirelessly on the student forum at St Petersburg University. He served the technical part, created topics for discussion, discussed with himself from different accounts. However, students registered on the network under false names, which prevented effective communication.

In 2005, a friend of Durov who returned from the United States introduced him to the social network Facebook, where users posted their real names, surnames and photos. So the desired concept of the site for Russia was found.

In general, Pavel did not like Facebook. But this did not prevent him from adopting individual elements of the project.

Durov himself noted: Steve Jobs studied and copied "Sony... If the society of Japan or America in the 80s treated borrowing the way we do today, there could simply be nothing growing there"

Initially, it was planned to call the social network "Student.ru", but Durov understood that his audience would be represented not only by students, but also by university graduates. As a result, the name "VKontakte" came by itself - Pavel Durov did not even consider any other options. Eventually:

From ordinary programmers to billionaires - the success of Pavel Durov

Many programmers and entrepreneurs dream of repeating Durov's success. In his unique breakthrough into the world of business, extraordinary talent, determination, obsession with an idea, perseverance, deep knowledge, and understanding of the needs of the audience have merged. The history of the creation of his business can be represented as a sequence of stages.

financial question

At the beginning of the journey, Durov was faced with a banal question: where to get start-up capital? He didn't have the money he needed. The funds were found by his partner, Vyacheslav Miriashvili (they say that he borrowed money from one of his father's companies). It was decided to register the company as an LLC.

Interesting fact: Initially, Durov's share in authorized capital was 20% (at the same time, he still made the main decisions). Mirilashvili owned 60% of the company and another 10% was bought by his father. 10% was transferred to another founder - Durov's partner - Leviev.
Source: Forbes.ru

Not to sell the business - but to attract investors

Already a year after the founding, 3 million users were subscribers of the VKontakte social network. In terms of page traffic, she bypassed Odnoklassniki and the Chinese portal Xiaonei. In December, it became known that this is the second number of visitors (the first - Yandex.ru) site in Russia. Active promotion of the network in the CIS countries began.

Such successes could not fail to interest the business community. Durov received many offers to buy VKontakte. And it was about tens of millions of rubles. However, its founder did not plan to deliver his offspring so soon. In the same year, a deal was made to sell 24.99% of the company to the Digital Sky Technologies (DST) fund. The investor's funds poured into the network, but the founders retained control over it.

Reference: DST Fund (Digital Sky Technologies) is an investment fund founded in 2005 by Yuri Milner and Grigory Finger to invest in Internet projects. In 2010 it was renamed to Mail.ru Group.

Pavel Durov is one of the most controversial and at the same time resourceful programmers of our time. He created the social network "VKontakte", although it is believed that it was copied from Facebook; developed one of the most secure Telegram messengers, which has already been banned in Russia; and Pavel Durov himself is considered a brilliant programmer, and at the same time, many of his actions are puzzling.

How did Pasha Durov achieve success? How were VKontakte and Telegram invented? Why is this billionaire's identity so ambiguous?

Childhood and formation of Pavel Durov

Even before 2006, Pasha Durov was known only in narrow circles, but after the appearance of the social network VKontakte on the Internet, almost everyone started talking about him. After that, from time to time, due to emerging news events, many were again interested in the success story and biography of the young programmer.

Today, Durov is one of the youngest and richest entrepreneurs in Russia, although he no longer lives there. He included in the list of 200 richest Russian businessmen according to Forbes magazine. Most people know him thanks to the VKontakte network, Telegram, and now the GRAM cryptocurrency, which has not yet entered the market, but has already created a huge number of fans.

Pavel Durov was born in 1984 in Leningrad, but a few years later his parents moved to Turin, Italy, where he went to first grade. Already at the age of 11, Pasha began programming and successfully created computer games. At school, he jokingly changed screensavers on computer desktops in the computer science class, and constantly cracked teachers' passwords.

After they returned to Russia, Pavel entered the Academic Gymnasium. All educational establishments he graduated with excellent marks, so when entering the St. Petersburg State University he received several scholarships. And although Pavel Durov studied at the Faculty of Philology, it was then that the career of the future billionaire began.

At the university, he showed himself exclusively as a skilled and gifted student, had high marks in all subjects, additionally studied foreign languages, and showed his leadership qualities. At the same time, Pavel received the rank of reserve lieutenant. Despite success in his studies, he never took his diploma from the university.

"VKontakte" - for 8 years to a billion

In 2006, a new social network VKontakte entered the market, which was similar to the Facebook platform. Pasha Durov, together with his brother Nikolai, in a few months promoted the site from a regular resource to a platform that was considered one of the most promising in Runet.

Initially, Durov said that the site would be free and without ads, but already at the beginning of 2017, the company was looking for ways to monetize the resource. These were both paid SMS to increase the user's rating on the site, and gifts that can be sent to friends, and then there was also the possibility of launching advertising in online games on the site.

In 2008, the number of registered users of VKontakte exceeded 20 million. The income from the social network was estimated at $ 2 billion, and Pavel Durov himself was considered one of the youngest ruble billionaires in Russia.

But when the social network has become a huge success, there have been problems with companies trying to buy back VKontakte shares. This mainly concerns Mail.ru Group, to which, after constant refusals, Pavel Durov sold his share of shares at the end of 2008. He left the firm and left Russia forever.

Creation and launch of Telegram

After leaving the VKontakte company, Pavel Durov took up the promotion of his Telegram project. His main feature was that the system had a unique technology for encrypting correspondence, which increased the security of the resource several times. After being criticized by many social networks for this very problem, Telegram has become a truly unique platform.

Several times the Russian government demanded to block the network and issue law enforcement encryption keys. Despite the fact that Durov tried to explain the features of the site and the fact that even if they give out the keys, the authorities will not get access to users' correspondence, attacks on the messenger continued.

Due to Pasha Durov's refusal to give out the keys, a large-scale information attack on Telegram and Durov himself began in Russia. The news constantly talked about the fact that the site contributes to the spread of terrorism and is used for such correspondence.

In April 2018, the use of Telegram was officially banned in Russia, and the process of blocking the resource began.

At the beginning of 2018, Pasha Durov announced the appearance (TON token). He launched the project at the ICO and already at the closed stage of the pre-sale of coins, and at the second stage about 2 billion dollars. This is several times higher than the sum of all ICOs that were launched in 2017.

Scandals and personal life of Pavel Durov

Most people consider Pavel Durov almost a genius, who was able to launch several successful projects. But many of his actions cause a negative reaction and criticism of the public.

One day Durov and his friends threw money out of the window of the VKontakte office, making airplanes out of them. He filmed the people below crowding and trying to catch them. It is estimated that he threw away about $2,000. After that, journalists and deputies began to harshly criticize him, condemning his eccentric behavior.

In 2012, Durov was even more attacked when, on Victory Day, he tweeted “People are walking! Well, still - 67 years ago, Stalin defended Hitler's right to repress the population of the USSR.. Now, many on television were already openly calling Pavel “scum”.

A year after VKontakte started fighting against Mail.ru Group's attempts to buy back shares, a video appeared on the Internet where a person who looks like Pavel Durov violates the rules traffic, and then knocks down the inspector and hides from the scene of an accident. Durov refused to even comment on what happened, and many consider the video a fake.

The personal life of Pasha Durov is closed and private information. He refuses to answer any questions that concern his girls. It is believed that the billionaire has a permanent girlfriend, although he periodically appears in the company of models. For some time, gossip was discussed on the Internet that Durov actually has a wife and two children, although he denied this information.

Pavel Durov - interesting facts

Forbes magazine estimates Durov's 2018 fortune at $1.7 billion, although financial analysts believe it is much more.

• The social network "VKontakte" was launched on October 10 - on Pavel's birthday. He was then 22 years old.
• In 2012, Nikolai Kononov released the book "Durov's Code", and almost immediately the release of the film was announced. Durov herself is very negative about the idea of ​​a film adaptation.
• In the same year, a major social network scandal began with Sergey Lazarev. The singer stated that the site uses pirated copies of his songs and demanded that all recordings be deleted. Pavel Durov did just that, saying that the cultural value of the network would only benefit from this. And when someone tried to play Lazarev’s music, they saw the message “The song was withdrawn from public access due to lack of cultural value.”
• Forbes magazine published an article about the most unusual businessmen in Russia - crazy people, eccentrics and eccentrics, where Pavel took 3rd place.
• Pavel Durov owns the Happy Farm game, which brings in about 10 billion in profit annually.
• Pavel Durov is a vegetarian, basically does not smoke or drink alcohol, leads an active lifestyle. According to some reports, he adheres to the Pastafarian religion, although his friends say that he is a supporter of the Zen school.
• Many are discussing the plastic surgery of Pavel Durov. It is assumed that he did hair extensions, changed the shape of the ears and cheekbones, although the entrepreneur himself denies this.
• Pasha calls himself a libertarian who adheres to freedom of speech as a basic human right.

Billionaire Pavel Durov is undoubtedly an interesting personality, an outstanding entrepreneur and programmer who was able to launch several successful companies. He has his own tough and arrogant business style, and despite criticism, he continues to adhere to it.

Pavel Durov is a Russian entrepreneur, programmer, one of the founders of the most popular social network in the CIS countries. Former CEO of VKontakte and one of the

Pavel Durov. Biography of a billionaire

Pavel Valeryevich was born on October 10, 1984 in Leningrad. His father is Valery Semenovich Durov - Doctor of Philology, Head of the Department of Classical Philology of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.

The Russian billionaire has a brother - Nikolai Valerievich. He is Technical Director"VKontakte", which is a candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, as well as a two-time world champion among students in programming.

School years

For the first time, Pavel Durov sat at a school desk in Turin, where his father worked at that time. A few years later, the family returned to Russia. After a short study in a regular school, Durov became a student of the academic gymnasium at St. Petersburg State University.

Pavel Valerievich studied in depth four foreign languages. Due to poor eyesight, he always sat at the first desk. From the age of 11, Pavel became interested in programming. Breaking computer network and the selection of passwords for computers in the computer science office are well-known pranks that Pavel Durov sinned. Biography of the future Russian entrepreneur continues in

Higher education

After graduating from the Academic Gymnasium, Durov continued his studies at the Faculty of Philology at St. Petersburg State University with a degree in English Philology and Translation. In his student years he became a laureate of the scholarship of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation, he was a laureate three times

In parallel with his studies at the university, he was trained at the military faculty in the specialty "Propaganda and psychological warfare." At the university, he served as a platoon leader in his faculty. At the end of military training, Durov received the rank of second lieutenant in the reserve. In 2006, he graduated with a red diploma, but he has not taken it from the university until now.

While a student, Pavel Durov began working on several projects designed to make it easier for students to find the information they need and to improve the quality of the scientific and social activities of his university.

First projects

Such projects have become e-library abstracts of the university (durov.com) and a forum for students of St. Petersburg State University (spbgu.ru). They did not bring any financial benefit to their creator, but only helped students of different universities to communicate.

After some time, he became disillusioned with the existing system of organizing user accounts in Runet, where people could hide under any names and avatars. Finding another form of implementing the association of Internet users is the goal that Pavel Durov set for himself at that time.

VKontakte: creation and development of the project

After some time, Pavel met his old friend, who returned from the USA, where he was studying. He told Durov about the Facebook student project. Users posted real photos and information there. Pavel liked this idea, and he decided to create a similar association in the Russian-speaking Internet space.

Durov began to bring the idea to life after graduating from the university. The original name of the project was "Student.ru", but after a while it was changed to "VKontakte". Durov explained this change by saying that in any case, students will become graduates.

Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai on October 1, 2006 open a society with limited liability, known to all of us as "VKontakte", and register the first domain of the service. Until the end of the year, the project was at the stage of testing and development. Registration was by invitation only. Already in December, Durov opened VKontakte for free registration. During the first days of open access, more than 2,000 users registered on the site.

At the initial stage, the promotion of the project was very successful through viral marketing and many contests for users. By the end of 2006, the servers could no longer cope with the constantly growing number of users, in connection with which the servers were replaced and the software support for the network was improved. In 2007, Durov receives numerous offers to buy the project, but he refuses them and continues to promote the network, attracting investors. In the same year, VKontakte became one of the three most visited Runet sites.

In 2008, the number of users exceeded the 20 million mark. At the same time, monetization of the project started: advertising, game applications, which began to bring software developers a certain percentage of the project's income.

Any popular and profitable project attracts hackers, spammers and others. VKontakte was no exception. The site was repeatedly infected and became a carrier of viruses. In addition, the site made attempts to expand the porn industry, so the developers did not have to sit idle.

Durov and his offspring were repeatedly sued for copyright infringement (for posting films and videos in the public domain on the site). But they did not end successfully for the plaintiffs, since VKontakte is a public resource, and certain users should be held responsible.

In 2011, VKontakte was seriously changed both externally and functionally. New features have appeared: a pop-up message box, convenient photo viewing, the ability to add video files from popular video hosting sites and other useful features.

Income of the creator of VKontakte

By the end of 2010, the company was valued at $1.5 billion. According to official data, the authorized capital of VKontakte at that time was divided as follows:

• Mikhail Mirilashvili - 10%;
• Lev Leviev - 10%;
• Pavel Durov - 20%;
• Vyacheslav Mirilashvili - 60%.

According to these data, in 2011 it was estimated at 7.9 billion rubles. But this figure may not correspond to reality. One "Happy Farmer" brings in about $10 million a year, and there are other, no less popular applications.

But still, based on official data, in 2011 Durov ranked 350th among the richest people in Russia, with 7.9 billion rubles ($260 million) in his accounts.

Since December 2011, he has begun financing various startups selected on a competitive basis, and already in December six of them received $25,000 from the entrepreneur. In January 2012, Durov donated a million dollars to the development of Wikipedia.

In November of the same year, he presented the documentary book "Durov's Code", dedicated to the development of "VKontakte". The film rights were immediately acquired by AR Films. As for Pavel, he reacted extremely negatively to the film adaptation. Despite his position, the film will be released in 2014.

What is he, the founder of VKontakte, in personal terms?

Pavel Durov, whose personal life is of considerable interest primarily to the beautiful half of humanity, does not attend social events, occasionally appears in public.
He is a workaholic, unsociable, polite. Pavel devoted himself almost entirely to running a business. Pavel Durov, whose personal life haunts the press, does not tell anything about it. Therefore, various rumors are spreading, not confirmed by facts.

Business Perspectives

Despite the status of a billionaire, Durov rents an apartment next to the office where he works. His idols are Steve Jobs, Che Guevara. He has a negative attitude towards the social network Facebook and calls it a "sinking ship". Durov is very aggressive in doing business.

Known for his "war" with the company Mail.ru Group, which is one of the largest shareholders of "VKontakte". In 2011, she wanted to absorb and merge the social network with Odnoklassniki. There is a well-known conflict between Durov and the editors of the Vedomosti newspaper related to the innovation of the site, which allows you to watch news from various resources without having to click on active links.

Criticism of Durov

Both eccentric actions and harsh statements that Pavel Durov often makes are criticized. A photo of the founder of VKontakte at the window of his office during the “money rain” immediately caused a flurry of criticism. Bloggers and journalists dubbed this trick "the whim of a merchant", and the words of the Minister of Culture were even tougher: "A person who treats the people like cattle should get the profession of a seamstress-mechanic in the zone."

On May 26, 2012, airplanes with banknotes attached were scattered near Durov's office. Eyewitnesses believe that Pavel Durov organized this, whose photo on the balcony during the turmoil near the building is confirmation of this, and he does not deny it.

On the eve of Victory Day on May 9 of the same year, Durov brought down the anger of many people with his statement on Twitter: “67 years ago, Stalin managed to defend the right to repress the people of the USSR from Hitler.” Many bloggers and various public figures immediately condemned this post and deleted their accounts from VKontakte in protest. Some time later, the press secretary of VKontakte stated that Durov’s sharp statement was due to the fact that his grandfather, who went through the war from beginning to end, was later repressed, and Pavel himself respects Victory Day.

Farewell to your child

Many are interested in the question: "Did Pavel Durov sell VKontakte?" This is partly true. It is known that on January 4, 2014, Durov sold his shares to the CEO of Megafon, Ivan Tavrin. The founder of the most popular social network of the CIS countries filed a letter of resignation on March 21, and a month later his application was accepted. After that, Pavel Durov left VKontakte completely and has no plans to return. Prior to his departure, the vice president resigned, as well as financial director social network.

being CEO USM Advisors, who owns a 52% stake in VKontakte, said: “We were surprised when Durov did not withdraw his resignation, and the owners of VKontakte satisfied his decision a month later. We have always considered that the role of Pavel Durov is very important for the company. We regret that he has decided to step down as CEO."

Perhaps Durov will change his mind and return to the position of VKontakte architect.

Despite all this, the fact remains that Pavel Durov sold VKontakte and left his offspring. He connected his dismissal with the fact that he did not provide the FSB with personal information about people supporting Euromaidan.

Today, the founder of VKontakte is outside Russia and plans to launch a mobile social network, but abroad. Telegram Pavel Durov will appear this year.

Conclusion

Many admire the talent and diligence of Pavel's bright and eccentric personality, others despise him, hinting at plagiarism and huge profits. He was credited with serving in the FSB, state funding of his offspring, and the fact that he was just a beautiful sign for the VKonakte project.

Durov always denied all these rumors on his personal page. Despite all this, his social network is an incredible success, which speaks volumes.

There is a statement on Durov's page: “There are very few of those who do, but do not talk. In any case, they are much less than it might seem. Don't waste time. A person is led to success by his actions, not words.