Pavel Durov

$17.07B
as of 07/14/25

About Pavel Durov

Pavel Durov is the founder and owner of messaging app Telegram, which has more than 1 billion monthly active users worldwide.

Telegram, which is free to use, competes with messaging apps like Facebook's WhatsApp.

Durov left Russia after refusing to cooperate with the secret service and provide encrypted data of his first social network's users. Telegram was banned in Russia from 2018 to 2021.

Durov became a French citizen in 2021 but lives in Dubai.

Durov, who has five children that he shares with two ex-girlfriends, has claimed to have donated sperm that led to him fathering 100 children.

Personal stats

Citizenship

United Arab Emirates

Source of wealth

Messaging app

Residence

Dubai

Marital status

Single

Birth date

10/10/84 (age 40)

Number of children

5

Education

Master of Science, Saint Petersburg State University

Self-made

self-made

Pavel Durov’s fortune is worth

285K

troy ounces of gold

263K

median U.S. household

171K

median U.S. income

0.341%

U.S. credit card volume

0.068%

GDP of the United States

0.05%

United States debt

Net worth history

Annual ranking

Did you know?

Durov is known as Russia's Zuckerberg because he created Vkontakte, Russia's biggest social network, at age 22.

Net worth over time

Real-time ranking

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