Photo: TechCrunch / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What fascinates me about Durov is not the code but the stubbornness. He built VKontakte into Russia's dominant social network, then walked away rather than compromise on principle, and rebuilt from zero with Telegram. Founders who strike gold twice are rare; founders who do it after sacrificing the first fortune to conviction are nearly mythical. His philology background shows, too: he thinks about how people should communicate before he thinks about features. The secrecy around his personal life feels less like PR strategy and more like philosophy. I do not always agree with his absolutism, but I respect a man whose products do his arguing for him.
Overview
Pavel Valeryevich Durov (Russian: Павел Валерьевич Дуров; born 10 October 1984) is a technology entrepreneur. He is best known as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Telegram. Durov was born in the Soviet Union, and he co-founded the social networking site VKontakte (VK) in 2006.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- パーヴェル・ドゥーロフ
- Name (Japanese)
- パーヴェル・ドゥーロフ
- Reading
- ぱーゔぇる・どぅーろふ
- Born
- October 10, 1984 (age 41)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Rat
- Origin
- Saint Petersburg, Russia
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- computer scientist / entrepreneur
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Faculty of Philology of Saint Petersburg State University
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | VK | — |
6. Links
Computer scientist — see all → · Entrepreneur — see all → · More people from Russia →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-11
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.