Telegram what is there. Telegram: what is this program. What happens if the server is hacked

Recently, the Telegram messenger has made a lot of noise. made a good advertisement for a service that is known for the security and reliability of data encryption. Today, the service is used for friendly communication, reading blogs and news, job search and business correspondence. Who created Telegram, and how does the messenger stand out among its peers? Read on.

How did the history of Telegrams begin?

Initially, Telegram was not a messenger in the usual sense of the word. The creator of the tool for secret correspondence is the same Pavel Durov, who previously founded the famous social network VKontakte. The idea of developing such a service appeared after Durov lost VK. Today, Telegram is popular in all corners of the world due to its convenient service, functionality and complete anonymity of communication even in public Wi-Fi points.

How Pavel Durov was taken away from VKontakte

In March 2013, Roskomnadzor turned to Durov with a demand to close A. Navalny's VKontakte group. Durov and his team refused to do so, arguing that the site would not be subject to political censorship. The result of the actions of the founder of the social network caused further trouble. At the end of 2013, Durov had to sell a 48% stake in VKontakte to a well-known Moscow investment firm. After that, Pavel decided to leave Russia for New York, and upon returning, he realized that he had completely lost control of VK.

In what year was the first version of Telegrams released and what was in it

According to Durov, for the first time the idea to create a Telegram prototype appeared in 2011, when special forces approached his apartment. After the incident, Pavel contacted Brother Nikolai and realized that he did not have a secure method of communication. The experimental version of Telegram was based on the MTProto message encryption service, and the main goal of the service is to test the protocol under high load conditions.

At the beginning of August 2013, the developers presented the first application client for the iOS mobile platform, and in October the first site of the Android program appeared, which has an open source code.

Durov brothers - the first developers

Telegram is a joint project of Pavel and Nikolai Durov. The MTProto encryption protocol was developed by Nikolay, and the very idea of creating a secure communication tool belongs to Pavel, who successfully popularized the application through his own company Digital Fortress.

Who owns Telegram now

Telegrams are officially owned by two companies registered in Belize and the Virgin Islands. One of the offices is registered in the UAE, and most of the data is distributed around the world in order to complicate the access of intelligence agencies to information. Durov's fortune today is estimated at more than $900 million.

According to the decision of Roskomnadzor, the Telegram messenger in Russia is blocked. However, users have found many easy ways.

How to contact Telegram support

Technical support is needed in case you have any problems or questions - lost SIM card, forgot login details, etc. There are several ways to get help:

Social networks (Twitter, VK).
With the help of the official site.
Through a support bot.

Contact through the official website

To apply through the official website, do the following:

Go to telegram.org/support.
In the "Please describe your problem" field, describe the problem in English. Use a translator if necessary.
Leave the email address and phone number to which the account is linked.
Wait for a detailed response to the email.

Ask a question directly from the app

You can also contact technical support directly in the application. Open the menu on the left and go to the settings section. At the bottom, find the "Ask a question" section. In the dialog box, select the “Ask a Volunteer” item, and then explain in detail the essence of the question.

Using a helper bot

In the search bar type @WTSupport_bot
Open the dialog box and describe the problem.
Enter your nickname in the messenger and save the data.
Describe the problem in as much detail as possible, attaching screenshots if necessary.
Click the Done button and the request will automatically be sent to the technical support staff.
Consultants can contact you to clarify the details of the issue.
You can track the status of your task using the attached tracker number.

Please note that it may not work sometimes. In this case, use other methods of contacting technical support.

Telegram is free, with which you can communicate with other users, exchange files of different formats and different sizes.

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Let's look at how the program works with an example.

Gennady is a new employee in the sales department. Its tasks are to conclude contracts with consumers, deliver ordered products, issue invoices, acts, tax invoices. The work is mobile, but every day you need to submit a report to the supervisor, at the end of the week - to the head of the department. All this is implemented using the Telegram communicator. An employee from the office quickly issues invoices for payment, tax and goods issuance acts and sends them to employees in the fields for transfer to customers. The order is collected in the warehouse according to the message sent. Reporting is also sent remotely. Save time and get the job done quickly. Help from colleagues and managers is always available.

The program was developed by Pavel Durov, a Russian programmer and one of the authors of the popular VKontakte network. The messenger uses a special encryption protocol MTProto - Nikolai Durov's own development. Protection applies to both message transmission and user authorization. High-level security is also maintained due to the fact that the servers where user data is stored are located in different places on the planet: London, Singapore, San Francisco.

The service is provided free of charge, its creators have invested their money in its creation for the sake of free and safe communication. They do not have an official website, high-profile advertising campaigns, their own pages in popular social networks. Clients promote the messenger. In case of any questions, the developers can be contacted on Twitter, where, although rarely, they communicate.

The number of accounts in the system exceeded 180 million as of the end of 2017. About 600 thousand participants are added every day. The messenger received the greatest popularity in the countries of the Middle East region, South America, Germany, Italy, Spain. The application works in 13 languages. This is a competitor to services such as Viber, WhatsApp, etc.

What is Telegram for?

What can you do in Telegram? The application does not just allow you to instantly exchange messages with other members of the service. Its functionality is much more. The best features of other common messengers and our own unique developments are what is provided to customers, and completely free of charge.

With Telegram you can:

Communicate online with users around the world, including high-quality audio calls are supported.
Send and receive files of various formats (photos, audio, video and others) with a maximum capacity of 1.5 GB.
Create group chats with up to 200 participants, including classified ones. The latter are possible thanks to encryption. A useful addition that ensures that the correspondence will not be known to strangers, even if they get a phone, is a self-destruct timer. When it is activated, after a certain time, the messages will be deleted from the chat and the memory of the phone and the server. Moreover, if a screen shot with a message is taken, the sender will receive a notification about it.
Organize communication in super groups - up to 10 thousand people. There is an administrator who can moderate posts and apply restrictions on members.
Use usernames - the function allows you to find a person without knowing his phone number.
Find interest groups and participate in their discussions.
Record and send an audio message.
Create your channels for viewing. Everything from business webinars and political discussions to cooking recipes and children's entertainment can be found here.
Listen to music - for free and even without the Internet. For this, a media player has been developed with a clear interface and a large set of functions.
Use cloud data storage from the service. Any files (volume and quantity are not limited) using the favorites tab and forwarding to yourself end up in a remote server.
Forward, create yourself, download stickers for free (unlike other messengers).
Send photos found in search engines without saving them to the device's memory.
Use automated assistants - bots.

Advantages

Messenger has a number of advantages. Among the main ones:

High speed of work - despite the location of servers in different parts of the world, message delivery will take a fraction of a second.
A clear classic program interface that can be designed in different styles: choose from ready-made options or apply your own.
Automatic addition of a list of service users from the phone book.
Easy start. All you need to register is a phone number.
All functions and features are free.
Innovation - the service is constantly updated. Its capabilities are expanding both taking into account the proposals of competitors, and their own developments that have no analogues.
High level of security and protection against account hacking and correspondence.
Unlimited for everything: the number of messages sent per day, the volume of files uploaded to the cloud, the time of use.
Compatible with all major operating systems, including mobile.

disadvantages

Of the main shortcomings that have been identified and have not yet been eliminated, one of the main ones can be considered the fact that communication with the technical support service is conducted only in English. Until recently, the interface did not have support for the Russian language. Russifiers were used for adaptation. The issue was resolved in October 2017, and Russian is one of the options to choose from.

Exceptional protection of correspondence and refusal to provide the authorities and law enforcement agencies with the content of conversations is the reason that through this communicator there is communication between terrorist groups, drug trafficking and other activities prohibited by law. This gives rise to dissatisfaction with some people and accusations against the company of complicity with crime.
The inability to control and stop the distribution of illegal information leads to the blocking of the program in some countries. Thus, restrictions were introduced in China during government strikes and rallies and in Iran for refusing to facilitate surveillance.

Despite high security measures, some information about the user can be obtained - his phone number. This does not contribute to the complete anonymity of the profile.

Comparison with competitors

Let's try to figure out how Telegram differs from others and which application to give preference to.

The most common communication program, owned by Facebook since 2014. For a long time it was paid, after a free annual period, the cost per year was 99 cents. WhatsApp instantly sends text messages and files, you can use it both from a mobile device and from a computer through the site. Simple and understandable. In these moments, it is similar to Telegram. However, the latter is updated more often (every three days, not once a week), allows you to change the design of the interface, its technical support will respond faster. Security is higher. And in only one parameter, WhatsApp is in the lead - the number of registered customers around the world. It will be possible to communicate with it with almost all your contacts - they, with a high degree of probability, have this program.

Viber

One of the most popular communication services. The functionality is superior to WhatsApp. There is the possibility of a video call, you can call a mobile phone, even if the subscriber has not installed Viber (fee is paid). There are both usual chat rooms and interest groups. Each of the chats can be distinguished by a different design. Convenient and fast login is possible from Facebook. The interface of this messenger remains unchanged for a long time, and updates are carried out on average once a month - less often than in Telegram. No file transfer. Inferior in security and speed of response to calls to Viber technical support.

Features of Telegram

In a number of opportunities, the service outperformed its closest competitors. The main ones are:

There is a two-way opt-out option - to send messages, the recipient must agree to communicate. This is protection against unwanted spam.
All history in the cloud. Even if the program is reinstalled (for example, a failure in the phone), then the previous correspondence will not be lost.
After adding to an already working group chat, the entire history of communication is available from the very beginning. There are convenient filters for searching files, photos, links.
It is convenient to send all contact data from the phone book.
You can add hashtags and search for information on them.
Forwarding multiple messages from a chat at once.
Active link - it opens a chat with the person who left it. In other messengers, you first need to create a contact, only after that you can communicate.
Invite to chat - you can send a link by which a person will get into the group if he wants to join.
Quickly record, send and listen to a voice message. The recording starts when the phone is brought to the ear, with one click it is sent to the addressee. The playback of an audio message is also enabled in the same way.
Voice recording duration up to 60 minutes. For comparison, Viber - 30 seconds, WhatsApp - 15 minutes.
Automatic saving of the printed message during a break in the work with the program (incoming call, other actions).
The mobile application takes up 2-3 times less device memory than other messengers.
Wider admin rights in group chats.

In these and some other moments, Telegram is confidently leading. In many ways, the choice of service is determined by the habit and preference of the social circle. However, more and more people prefer this communicator, having estimated its capabilities.

Protection from strangers

This item is one of the most important for the creators of the Telegram messenger. Users can be sure that their chats and transmitted data will not be available to anyone. Relevant against the background of fairly frequent reports of hacking mail and other correspondence in other services. Moreover, they will not even be opened at the request of government agencies. This is also confirmed by the words of Edward Snowden, who repeatedly gained access to the most secret documents and correspondence. But not in this messenger.

Customer information and files on the company's servers are stored encrypted, with different codes applied to different parts of the data. To decipher them, you have to work. Moreover, information clusters are hosted on servers located in different countries. Seizure of information from one of the data centers, for example, from law enforcement agencies, will not work. You can get only the part from which the message cannot be restored. And there are no rights to act in other countries. The time of message preservation in . It cannot be restored after deletion.

To uncover possible errors in protection and encoding, a competition is held every year with a solid reward - up to 300 thousand dollars. It will go to someone who can reveal the content of a particular chat. This checks the security of the system in order to take action if problems are found. So far, no one has been able to fully implement this.

The most, at the moment, the biggest criticism of the security of this system is that registration is carried out with a phone number. And this does not make the communication completely anonymous. On the other hand, this is an additional check - when you log into your account from a new device, it receives an SMS with a verification code. If the device with the installed service is lost, you can block the program from running on it remotely through a special website.

How to use

Where to start and how to create a Telegram account? Let's consider the main points. To work, you need a computer, tablet or smartphone with Windows Phone, iOS, Android, Win, Mac OS or Linux operating systems.

The program must be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. No registration is required, only a code sent to the specified mobile number. Contacts are automatically pulled from the phone book. For those who are not yet in the program, you can send an invitation.

It will take a couple of minutes to edit your profile and settings. You can upload, name, selected nickname and get to work.

Useful Tools

In addition to the usual chats, group communication, sending and viewing files, there are special tools. Their use allows you to expand the capabilities of the service and gives customers additional convenience.

Channels

In the messenger there is such a thing as a channel. This is online or recorded content that is transmitted unilaterally - from the author to the audience. Broadcasting is one-way, there is no possibility to add comments. Each has a name and a link that allows you to find it among others. For example, telegram.me/World of fashion - trends from world couturiers and trends of the season.

You can transfer the content of another site or social network to the Telegram channel, make your own adjustments and messages from the administrator. Creating your own channel is quite easy, the main thing is to fill it with interesting videos and news. The user in the settings can specify the viewing options. There are two options: updates on the channel will be shown in the chat section - just like messages from ordinary people; or silent mode. Then go to the channel and see what's new, you can at any convenient time.

Channels can be both public - for everyone, and private - access is opened by the administrator upon request.

The relevance of the service is evidenced by the fact that even Pope Francis opened his channel for instructions and short sermons for parishioners. It is significant that before that the Pontifex used WhatsApp for these purposes.

Bots

These are special virtual assistants controlled by the program. They can perform a variety of actions on request: find the exchange rate, convert documents, show the weather forecast, Google analytics, news, program guide and a lot of other information. It is possible to configure their work according to a convenient schedule - performing an action at a certain time.

There are two types:

Regular - commands and search requests are sent to them.
Embedded - allow you to search without leaving the chat, and post search results in it. For example, a bot named @gif will offer pictures based on keywords entered after its name.

You can create your own bot by following the prompts.

Telegram for business

More and more companies are promoting their business online. Websites are being created, work is underway in social networks, on forums. Messengers are no exception. Business in Telegram received additional opportunities to communicate with consumers.
There are many methods for promotion, including:

Bots or a live person to support customers on emerging issues.
Channels for business - informing about new products, promotions, videos about the use of goods. You can get closer to customers by talking about yourself, your work and projects, the channel is quite suitable for these purposes. Interesting content increases popularity, encourages people to recommend it to others for viewing.
Creation and distribution of stickers to promote the brand.
Communication within the company - setting goals, discussions, reports, plans. Applicable both at the level of the entire company and by department. Bonus in the form of secrecy and the inability to intercept important information by competitors.
Document management - storage and access to the necessary documents. It can be quickly and conveniently organized using cloud storage.
Online catalog - using a bot, selects a product directly in the application.
Acceptance of payments. Payment systems available: PaymentWall, Stripe, Yandex.Checkout, Paycom. You can buy what you like right away and without switching to other applications - quickly, conveniently and increases sales.

Taking into account the fact that Telegram is a service that is only gaining popularity, it is the right move to start promoting your company in it. There are not many competitors here. Most out of habit still use other applications: Whatsapp, Viber, Skype. Therefore, messages will not be lost among many others. Youth and advanced audience, functionality, security and the absence of any fees make Telegram one of the most modern tools for business.

One of the biggest challenges is being yourself in a world that tries to make you like everyone else.

Paul Valerievich Durov (born October 10, 1984, Leningrad) - Russian businessman, programmer, developer and co-founder of the social network "VKontakte", led VKontakte as CEO from 2006 to 2014, currently the founder and head (CEO) of the Telegram messenger.

At the age of 31, Mr. Durov was included in the rating of "200 richest businessmen in Russia" by Forbes. They like to call him a "ruble billionaire", but these data are practically outdated: Mr. Durov is approaching a new title - " dollar billionaire". From 2016 to 2017, his capital increased from $600 million to $950 million. Now he is in the TOP-100 "richest people in Russia-2017" at the 100th position (Forbes).

Pavel turns millions, but it's not just about millions of rubles and dollars. He created a digital country with a multi-million population (over 100 million users), giving life to the VKontakte resource.

How many smart boys from intelligent families become millionaires? What helped Paul to put his mind right, start his own business, and succeed? The biography of Pavel Durov will tell us about this.

Family and childhood of Pavel Durov

Durov Pavel Valerievich was born on 10/10/84 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad).

One of his great-grandfathers was a nobleman, the other a farmer, both subsequently lost their property.

The head of the family Durov Valery Semenovich, Doctor of Philology, headed the department at St. Petersburg State University. Mother, Albina Alexandrovna, grew up in Omsk, where she learned their language from German settlers. Having moved to Leningrad, she easily entered the faculty of journalism. The grown-up Pasha admits that he is grateful to his father and mother for their upbringing, parents " set an example of optimism and diligence even in difficult times for our family.”

Pavel was the youngest in the family, his mother had two more sons: Mikhail (from his first marriage, he was an adult and lived separately) and Nikolai (born in 1980). It was Nikolai who set a worthy example for little Pavlik. The older brother grew up as a smart little boy, at the age of 3 he read Popular Astronomy, and at 7 he “clicked” cubic equations. Pasha was gifted in a different way, often drawing guests at home and deftly capturing the similarities.

In 2015, on Twitter, congratulating his father on his anniversary, Durov Jr. will note:

My father taught me and my brother the value of perseverance, honesty and hard work.

Hard work and dedication are important qualities of a successful person.

Education in primary schools

Pavel Durov changed four schools. When his father was offered to teach Russian in Turin, the family moved to Italy. Pasha was taken away a few months later, and before that, his grandmother took him to an ordinary Leningrad school.

From 1990 to 1992, Pasha studied at the Coppino-Falletti di Barolo school (Turin), and upon his return to St. Petersburg he attended a comprehensive school (1992-1996). There was a conflict with the teachers. In Italy, children were taught differently, without coercion, and the authority of the teachers was not hammered into the head of the elementary school student. Pavlik could make a remark to the English teacher, blaming him for the wrong pronunciation. In the 4th grade, Pasha is fond of programming, together with Nikolai he creates programs on his first IBM PC XT computer. In the computer class, instead of a screensaver, he installed a photo of a computer science teacher on school machines, signing it with the benevolent “must die” (English “must die”).

In 1996, the young rebel was transferred to the Academic Gymnasium of St. Petersburg State University, where lessons, including 4 languages, are taught in depth. Pavel appreciates the acquired knowledge, according to the millionaire, knowledge of languages expands the worldview, promotes career growth. Durov has 9 foreign languages in his piggy bank, he can easily support a conversation in international English, exotic Persian, Latin, as well as Français, Deutsch, Español, italiano.

In the experimental classes of the gymnasium, Durov meets the same smart people as himself. However, classmates referred to him as a non-team student, claiming that he "always found a way to be separate." Journalist Nikolai Kononov, who wrote Durov's biography, will come to the conclusion that Pavel "was known as a sociopath because few wanted to talk to anyone at school."

In 2001, Pavel Durov graduated from the gymnasium with honors, he did not reach the “gold”, he was awarded a silver medal. To the question “who do you want to become”, the graduate laughed it off - “Internet totem”. In principle, he became one - an idol, a symbol, a totem of the most popular Russian-language social network.

University years

In 2001, Pavel became a student at the same university as Kolya. The elder brother is studying mathematics and programming at St. Petersburg State University, and Pasha chose the specialty "English Philology and Translation".

Philology student becomes a university activist. " Pavel spoke quietly, but for some reason everyone fell silent and began to listen.”, - this is how the businessman and scientist Yuri Lifshitz, also a student at St. Petersburg State University, will speak about Durov’s leadership charisma. Pavel is included in the rating of students with the highest level of intelligence. For outstanding achievements, he is honored with a government scholarship, awarded with a scholarship from the President of the Russian Federation. Durov has been a scholarship holder of the V. Potanin program for 3 years in a row.

As a student, Durov acted as a web developer for two Internet projects:

The Durov.com resource is a platform for students to exchange useful information, an electronic database of abstracts, term papers, etc.
The site spbgu.ru is a forum for students of St. Petersburg State University. Here, Durov intuitively "felt" the future concept of "VKontakte" - he modeled a real communication scheme: when creating a profile, students indicated their real name, surname, department. “I tried to kindle a fire,” admits Pavel, who threw hot topics into the forum for discussion. “It was necessary to create the illusion of a critical mass.”

While working on these non-commercial projects, Pavel saw that power is given not only by money, but also by control of information. Maintaining websites taught him to think about the absence of superiors . He strives to work for himself, and not for "uncle."

In 2005, with the rank of reserve lieutenant, Durov graduated from the military commissar with a specialization in propaganda and psychological warfare. In 2006 - leaves the "alma mater", having earned a diploma with honors.

Foundation and development of VKontakte

After uni, Pavel took up the creation of VKontakte. It all started with friendly advice. His classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, a student at Tufts University (USA), observed the growing popularity of the Facebook social network, the creation of Mark Zuckerberg, in America. Having learned from Delovoy Peterburg about the St Petersburg University forum and Durov's success, he wrote to Pavel about the idea of creating a similar Russian-language network. Durov liked the plan, because the search for classmates was relevant personally for him and Vyacheslav: Because we might never meet again.

At first, the site was called "Student.ru", but then Pavel changed the name to a more comprehensive one. Durov created the brand name of the portal quickly, typing “Tahoma” in 3 minutes. He chose colors that don't bother anyone"- blue, white and grey.

The site did not become just a “Facebook clone”. Durov claimed that they "never copied without using the brain."

The friends did not have starting capital, Vyacheslav turned to his father, Mikhail Mirilashvili, for help. Thanks to his support, VKontakte LLC was established and the project was launched. There were three founders of the company: Vyacheslav Mirilashvili with a controlling stake, and co-owners Lev Leviev and Pavel Durov with a non-controlling stake in securities.

FIRST STEPS OF THE SITE

In 2006, the number of visitors to the social networks of Runet grew exponentially: Odnoklassniki, launched in March 2006, had 1.5 million users by November. The demo version of VKontakte appeared on time - in September 2006, a little more, and it could have been late. Durov started a personal page with "ID" under No. 1 http://vkontakte.ru/id1.

At first, the site was closed, registration was available by personal invitation. After 3 months, since December 2006, the resource began to be replenished by everyone. Aspiring businessmen organized a drawing with a prize from - "invite more friends and you will get an iPod player." Within a couple of days, the site attracted over 2,000 users.

Pavel chose the right people for his team.

Remember: you - those who can do something, and not talk, are very few.

Actions, not words, lead a person to success.

Durov resolutely dismissed those who caused some doubts. His brother Nicholas worked with him. He solved server load issues that were very relevant: from 2006 to 2007, the VK audience increased to 3 million.

Durov was awarded the title of "Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007" by the publication "Business Petersburg", and in the same year the popular vote of the Runet Prize put the portal in 2nd place. The resource of that time was non-commercial, without advertising, and in this way it was fundamentally different from other Internet endeavors.

VKontakte is beginning to interest potential buyers, but Pavel does not want to sell the development, instead attracting investors. The first financial sponsor was Yuri Milner, chairman of the board of the Digital Sky Technologies investment fund. The Internet investor was remembered by the VKontakte team for the fact that he himself took the initiative and personally came to them.

The investor acquired 24.99% of the shares, and later resold them to Mail.ru Group.

In 2008, the network's audience amounted to more than 20 million registered customers. This year, the site is monetized, advertising banners appear.

In 2010, the company's central office moved to Nevsky Prospekt 28, in the building of the Singer company. Of the six floors of the house, the web developer rents the top two for the headquarters of the company. Later, he will buy a huge space - a squat on Nevsky 65, where his hard-working employees can also spend the night. Pavel himself did not want to become attached to anything, rented an apartment nearby, lived here and there, but mostly in a squat. Later, he will give the keys to these square meters to Vasily Babich, an employee of the company. Durov did not visit the office earlier than 12 o'clock, he worked in his own mode, until 3-4 o'clock in the morning.

In 2011, having already 7.9 billion rubles in his pocket, the programmer enters the TOP of the richest businessmen in Russia (350th place). One of his colleagues, Oleg Andreev, explained the results of a newcomer to the IT industry by the fact that Durov " I could see through the eyes of a person with an old browser and a slow Internet.”

In 2011, Durov, as the best creator of a Runet startup, gets into the Forbes TOPs. However, Pavel is not limited to creating a startup, he decides to finance them. By the end of 2011, six startups received $25,000 on a competitive basis.

Pavel does not limit the VK audience and dreams of entering the European market. In 2011, the domain moves to the abbreviated address vk.com, which is more easily perceived by residents of other countries.

In 2011, a photo of Pavel Valeryevich showing a fak indecent gesture is posted in Forbes. The eccentric hero is in 3rd place in the ranking of extravagant and eccentric businessmen, to whom the press has already attributed and.

This gesture, instead of a thousand words, was Pavel Mail.ru Group's response to the company's attempts to absorb the social network. Mail.ru Group director Dmitry Grishin already owned Odnoklassniki and wanted to merge the resources together.

The founders of the company Mirilashvili and Leviev did not approve of the actions of the freedom-loving co-founder. In April '12, they sold their stake in VKontakte (40% and 8%, respectively) to the United Capital Partners (UCP) group of companies, without informing other shareholders, Durov and Mail.ru Group, about the deal.

Life in exile

In December 2011, after protests against the falsification of the results of the elections to the State Duma, FSB officers recommended that Durov block opposition communities and meetings on the resource. The general director of the VK rejected the proposal, after which he was invited to the prosecutor's office to testify.

In 2011, special forces visited Durov. Durov shared with correspondents of The New York Times that the idea to create Telegram (Durov's next product after VK) dawned on him at the very moment when these trained guys approached his apartment.

They had weapons and looked very serious. Seemed like they wanted to break down the door

Durov advocates free access to information on the Internet. For the convenience of users (free music tracks, videos), he had to pay more than once: content owners filed claims for copyright infringement. In 2010, the State Television and Radio Company VGTRK was the first to sue VK for unlawful placement of its content on the site. After 2 years, singer Sergey Lazarev warned that he would sue for pirated content on VK. Durov informed him on Twitter that Lazarev's compositions had been removed from the site and quipped that now the cultural value of VKontakte had increased. Durov himself did this check for pirated content:

On January 12, during the Digital Life Design conference, Pavel announced to Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, that he intended to sponsor the encyclopedia. After 3 months, the programmer donated $1,000,000 to the Wikipedia project. The philanthropist believes that money " overrated because creation is so much more interesting than consumption.”

Pavel Durov became the initiator of the championship for programmers VK Cup. In 2017, this open youth tournament (from 14 to 23 years old) is held for the fourth time.

1 of his Twitter post, dated May 9, read: “People are walking. Still - 67 years ago, Stalin defended Hitler's right to repress the population of the USSR. A company spokesman said that the head of VK is honoring the Victory Day. And the comment arose from the fact that Pavel's grandfather (WWII participant Semyon Tulyakov), having received three wounds and the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, was repressed in peacetime without trial or investigation.

On May 27, on the day of the city, VK managers, together with the boss, launched paper airplanes from the windows of the central office with 5,000 banknotes attached to them. Citizens gathered under the head office of the VK, arranging a brawl for banknotes. Angry comments rained down on Durov, accusing him of snobbery. The head of Vkontakte explained that he only wanted to maintain a cheerful mood on the occasion of the founding day of St. Petersburg, but " I had to quickly stop - the people began to rage».

A CASE WITH A COLLISION

On April 5, 2013, an accident occurred near the VK office. The investigation concluded that the car that hit the traffic police officer was driven by the founder of VK. But in October 2013, due to the “lack of a crime event,” the case was closed, then re-opened, and in 2014 it was closed again.

On December 13th, the FSB of the Russian Federation requested from the head of VKontakte the personal data of the organizers of the Euromaidan communities. The CEO of the social network refused to provide information. He appreciated the trust of millions of Ukrainian clients of the resource, and considered the issuance of information about the user base illegal.

UCP vs. MAIL.RU

What you own will sooner or later own you. Durov's quote claims to be included in the collection of classical aphorisms.

He quickly sells material "anchors": furniture, property, shares. In 2014, he parted with 12% of VK, selling them to his friend Tavrin (media manager, former head of MegaFon). Securities, in turn, were bought from Ivan Tavrin by the Mail.ru group, which eventually acquired a controlling 52 percent. The holder of 48% of the securities, the UCP association, stated that the policy of Mail.ru Group harms the interests of VK and began legal claims.

The “X” hour struck on March 21, 2014, when Pavel made a statement “on his own”. It was signed a month later: Probably, in Russian conditions, something like this was inevitable, but I am glad that we lasted 7.5 years.”

On April 22, 2014, information appeared that Pavel Valerievich had left his homeland. Former CEO considers his departure final. He commented to TechCrunch reporters that there was no turning back for him: Especially after I publicly refused to cooperate with the authorities.

The founder of the portal calls VKontakte the best that has been created in the field of communication on the Russian market, and it is difficult for him to argue. The facts speak for themselves: the growth of the startup's popularity has broken all Runet records. The site, conceived as a means of finding friends, has transformed into the largest social network in the Russian Federation, in terms of the number of “users”, VKontakte is ahead of the Russian-language segment of Facebook and Odnoklassniki. The resource is visited monthly by more than 97 million people (April 2017 data).

PILGRIM'S LIFE

The programmer named 7 conditions under which he could return: these are the reforms of the courts and education, the simplification of laws, the economic autonomy of the regions, etc.

1 Elected judges and open courts. Durov believes that only judges chosen by ordinary people, not officials, as well as jurors, can ensure the most honest and independent outcome of the proceedings. This, in turn, will help develop entrepreneurial initiative.

2 Deregulation (simple laws). Paul is against the abundance of laws that contradict each other. They stimulate the development of corruption in the country and slow down economic growth.

3 Open competitions for government positions. Officials, fearing for their homes, form their teams through established friendships and family ties, as a result of which illiterate and inefficient employees can occupy significant positions. It also affects corruption in the country and economic development. It is necessary to introduce transparent mechanisms and direct elections for public office.

4 Tax haven due to income from the export of raw materials. Russia is rich in natural resources. It is necessary to free the underdeveloped sectors of the economy from taxes and shift their burden to well-developed resource industries. This will help attract investment, level the balance of development and give impetus to the economic development of the entire state.

5 Economic autonomy of regions. It is necessary to change the structure of taxation in such a way that the main part of regional taxes remains on the ground, and is not redistributed, as it is now, to the capital.

6 The abolition of feudal vestiges. The freedom of consciousness of the population is the basis of the progress and economic development of Russia, which is currently hindered by the slavish consciousness formed through military service, the institution of registration, the need to issue a separate travel passport.

7 Destandardization of the education system. The modern education system limits the consciousness of the younger generation, forms stereotyped views. We need flexibility, non-standard training programs that will educate free and creative individuals.

In his VK profile, in the column "political beliefs" is "libertarianism" (a trend that prohibits "aggressive violence").

Now I am very happy living without any property and considering myself a citizen of the world

Pavel has the citizenship of Saint Kitts and Nevis, he received it for investing in the country's economy. The passport of this state in the Caribbean with a population of 50 thousand allows you to freely travel around the world. Durov can't sit still, he changes locations a couple of times a month. Together with him, programmers developing Telegram travel around different cities and countries.

Telegram is a new project of Pavel Durov

On August 14, 2013, Telegram was launched, an application for smartphones and other mobile devices where you can exchange text messages and files of various formats. The messenger is designed with an emphasis on speed and security.

Telegram allows you to supplement posts with funny pictures - stickers. A feature of the stickers in the application is the absence of a background, which creates the illusion of a sticker.

The messenger for users is free, but Durov is expensive. Pavel - "2 in 1", is both the founder and sponsor of Telegram. Every year, Durov finances approximately $12 million for it. He warns against being overly fond of money: “ boring work with dull cowards, the need to lie and betray your world - that's just part of the price you pay for an excessive desire for paper.

Telegram uses a special message encoding method developed by Nikolai Durov. The server part uses the capacities of US and German companies. Durov's project was developed on the assumption that "all communication channels are tapped." “Even our system administrators cannot access the user's chats,” the creator of the system assures.

In June 2014, Telegram received a prestigious award in Berlin - it was named the fastest growing startup of the year at the Europas competition. The Europas Award was established in 2009 and selects the most progressive and innovative technological start-ups in Europe.

In November 2014, the application had about 1 million installations (TJournal data), after a couple of months - already 35 million.

In 2014, The New York Times called the entrepreneur Russian. The programmer admits: My dream is to break the national inferiority complex by proving that products from Russia can be massively in demand all over the world.

In 2015, there was talk of selling Telegram to Google (for $1 billion), but Durov denied the information about the deal.

In February 2016, there was another reason to celebrate: Telegram reached the mark of 100 million subscribers. active users per month.

Representatives of the Russian government warned of blocking Telegram if Durov does not change the policy of anonymity. But the fundamental concept of Telegram implies the security of correspondence, Pavel refused to give out information about users.

FSB officials said that when planning the explosion in the St. Petersburg metro on April 3, 2017, Telegram was used as a communication channel. The messenger was called a way of communication of terrorists.

“Privacy is ultimately more important than our fear of bad things like terrorism,” the Telegram creator told TechCrunch. “ISIS will always find other ways to communicate.”

On the request of Roskomnazdor in May 2017 to provide information for registering the messenger, its founder refused. In June, Durov nevertheless sent information, warning that further issuance of personal data of clients was out of the question.

Hello! The new messenger, created by the founder of VKontakte Pavel Durov, has rapidly gained wide popularity all over the world and many users want to know what Telegram is and why is it needed?

To better understand why it was necessary to develop yet another program for text chats and file sharing, it is useful to recall the numerous scandals and problems with other similar applications.

Messenger WhatsApp has been repeatedly accused of lack of protection of personal information and regular theft of user data.
Both WhatsApp and Imo are only available as apps for mobile devices.
Thirdly, popular free messengers are heavy and do not work fast enough.
There are no web versions - you can not communicate through browsers.

The bottom line is that it is impossible to use these unsecured messengers for business - after all, there is no guarantee that commercial information will not fall into the hands of competitors or intruders.

Users of desktop computers, laptops and tablets are automatically thrown out of the closed club of smartphone owners with access to free communication.

But many people do not buy smartphones because they prefer to have a specially designed tool for every task.

It is most convenient to call on a conventional cellular device, and not on a smartphone. Many people do not need the Internet at all outside the office or at home.
A smartphone is not suitable for business activities.
It is more convenient to work on a laptop or desktop.

And so the inventor of VKontakte, who has the unique ability to see the pressing need of the mass user, instantly caught the wave and, with the help of his Digital Fortress company, launched an Internet messenger devoid of all the above disadvantages and problems.

So, make coffee, sit back comfortably by the monitors - it's time to find out in more detail what Telegram is and why it is needed.

How Telegram works

The text messaging service operates in the format of a cloud system. This means that servers of a common network are distributed all over the world and when a user sends a message, the data is processed by the nearest data center. In the event of an overload of a server, data is transferred to free network nodes, and due to such clustering, speed and uninterrupted messaging is achieved.

All transmitted data and forwarded files are encrypted using a complex algorithm, and data packets that are no longer inaccessible to hackers pass through the cables.

To achieve special security (for example, to protect corporate chats, business correspondence, business conferences), Telegram has a secret chat function. The user can configure self-destruction of all correspondence after a specified time. When you exit the program, the entire chat history is destroyed.

The founders of the Telegram project swear by oath that the messenger is completely free, will always be free and there will be no annoying ads in the application. Having calmed down about the safety of the wallet, you can start to get acquainted with how to use Telegram .

Telegram - easy to start, easy to communicate

It's really easy and simple to start chatting - no registration is required.

Download and install the application.
Enter your phone number.
You will receive an SMS with a confirmation code.
The code must be inserted into the specified field.

After that, the application automatically connects to the Contacts on your device and you can immediately see which of your friends has Telegram.

Telegram for computer, tablet and online

Unlike other popular instant messengers, Telegram has ready-made applications for desktop computers, laptops and tablets on different operating systems. You can download it on the official website Telegram.org. In addition, you can use it from any device through a web interface in a browser on the Webogram website at:

By default, the Telegram application does not have Russification and you need to execute a small algorithm to make the messenger speak in Russian. One of the bots will help you with this - small useful programs for Telegram.

Enter in the search bar in the application @RusLangBot
When the bot is found, click on it.
A chat with this bot will open.
In the message from the bot you will receive a link to download the crack file.
Click the down arrow and download the file.
Now click on the three vertical dots and open Menu.
Click Apply localization file– apply the localization file.

Everything is ready - the language selection menu will immediately open, click Russian and Telegram will instantly acquire a Russian-language interface.

What else can Telegram

It makes no sense to describe in detail how to use Telegram, because the control system is standard - everything, like in other messengers, will not get confused. But it is interesting to consider additional useful features of Telegram .

Support for stickers and emoji. Make your text communication emotionally rich! Search and connect packs of fun stickers and emoji keyboards.
Instead of a phone number, you can assign a username and then you can be found by name. In this case, your subscribers will not be able to see your phone number. This can be handy in some situations.
Bulk messaging and group chats.
Saving the entire history of correspondence on the server. Unless it's a secret chat.
Unlimited photo and video file sharing.
Application bots are small programs for different functions. For example, @grammarnazibot after installation will check for errors in all chats and messages.

The development team regularly adds new features to Telegram – so don't forget to update the app, stay up to date and keep up with the times .

Adding contacts to Telegram

Suppose you did not find a single acquaintance in your contact list who has Telegram. Or another option - telephone communication is not provided on tablets, therefore telephone numbers are not indicated in the contact list. How to be? How to add a Telegram contact?

Since Telegram is tied to your phone book, you need to add numbers not in the messenger, but in the Contacts interface on your device.
Open Contacts, add the desired phones and enter the names.
After that, your friends will automatically appear in the contact list in Telegram and you will find out who is already in the system.

And if the people you need do not use Telegram yet? Then you can send invitations to your friends directly from the messenger. In the management interface, find the item "Invite Friends". You can send an invitation to download Telegram and join the free communication club in any convenient way - email, SMS, through social networks. That's all! See you soon!

Sincerely, Evgeny Kuzmenko.

Updated: On April 13, 2018, the Tagansky District Court ruled to block Telegram. The messenger refused to provide the FSB with the keys to decrypt user correspondence. On April 16, Russian providers began blocking. Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the messenger will use built-in blocking bypass methods that do not require user action, but 100% availability of the service without a VPN is not guaranteed.

In October 2013, the popular Arabic blogger Khaled has published several posts about the Telegram messenger that has just appeared in the App Store. It all started when another user, @AboMayar, recommended him to try this app. Khaled responded by posting an angry cat, but then began to encourage subscribers to use Telegram. The blogger's posts contributed to a surge in downloads - in a few weeks, the Telegram audience grew to 100,000 users. Khaled and @AboMayar still promote the messenger on their twitters, while Telegram denies that the bloggers are salaried employees.

Saudi Arabia, like other Gulf countries, has become one of Telegram's growth points. Bill Hyder, a developer from Saudi Arabia, wrote in your Twitter account: “Telegram is getting popular. I know about two government agencies that asked their employees to register in the messenger.”

Pavel Durov built the marketing of his project on the idea of "security" under the slogan "Taking back our right to privacy" and in every possible way instilled in users the confidence that no special services would be able to read their messages. According to the entrepreneur, Telegram is growing thanks to a good product - users communicate about it to each other in one way or another - and also because WhatsApp's main competitor "sucks". “It is necessary every month to roll out a serious product update at least, which pulls on a revolution,” Durov told Sekret about his strategy. - You need to be faster, prettier, simpler and at the same time more functional than the main competitors. You need to have a serious ideological basis that will appeal to trendsetters. We need to change the industry both in narrow technological and mainstream aspects.”

Sounds inspiring, as always, but the story of Telegram's promotion would be incomplete without parsing a few bizarre episodes. All marketing stories around the messenger were based on the topic of security. And it worked - in June 2014, Telegram was named the fastest growing startup in Europe, and in February 2016, Durov's service passed the mark of 100 million users.

"Secret" sorted out the collisions associated with the growth of Telegram, and the nature of the messenger's success.

A year after VKontakte, the first employees

Telegram was born in scandals. Since the spring of 2012, Telegram has had a separate legal entity, where the first employees moved from VKontakte. The service concept has changed several times. Initially, Durov planned several projects in parallel: Telegraph was supposed to develop towards geochats, dating, and so on, Telegram was built on the idea of end-to-end encryption and encrypted voice communication, Pictograph was supposed to adopt the ideas of Instagram. After a scandal broke out around the data published by the former CIA officer Snowden in June 2013, Durov decided to concentrate on the security of communication. He used ideas from the Telegraph and Pictograph in the messenger.

Telegram appeared as part of the non-profit organization Digital Fortress and was launched with Durov's money. He still finances the project alone, having earned about $300 million from the sale of his stake in VKontakte. According to Durov, the costs are more than $1 million per month. In an interview with the Washington Post, Axel Neff, who opened a company in the US and bought servers for Telegram, described the concept as follows: “Create a series of messengers that rely not on phone operators, but on data centers.” Durov stated that Telegram is located in several jurisdictions and this avoids pressure from the authorities of any of the countries.

Durov's elder brother Nikolai wrote the MTProto information encryption protocol. According to Sekret, the design of the messenger was developed by the former VKontakte designer Alexei Dobromyslov and Pavel Durov himself, and the artist Andrey Yakovenko also took part in the development of the corporate identity. The app hit the App Store in August 2013, and the Android version launched two months later. At the same time, Telegram employees (mostly developers), on the orders of Durov, organized a separate space on the sixth floor of the Singer house and were given new magnetic cards to enter the office.

The then shareholder of VKontakte, the UCP Foundation, felt that Durov was using the company's resources to create his own application. Durov denied everything: he said that Telegram developers were not connected with VKontakte and even that “strictly speaking, Telegram is not my project.” In 2014, as a result of the proceedings, Durov had to launch a new application on iOS - Telegram HD - and transfer users there from Telegram Messenger.

According to the official version, Telegram is based in Berlin; European media often refer to the company as German. The Secret found out that Telegram never had a main office in Berlin (although Durov rents an apartment there), key developers worked on Telegram all from the same Singer house where VKontakte sits. Several sources confirmed that Durov still visits Singer's house. His brother Nikolay remained to live in St. Petersburg, although he sometimes travels with his brother. The former CEO of Telegram Andrey Lopatin never left St. Petersburg.

Developers, together with Durov, often visit different countries. For example, six months ago telegrammers celebrated the company's birthday in Venice with a Napoleon cake. Their leader's movements can be tracked on his Instagram: Dubai, San Francisco, Venice. Another source is Airbnb, through which Durov rents apartments and receives reviews from the owners. For example, Vincent from Paris writes that Pavel and Nikolai are "excellent guests".

Durov still hires employees through competitions. So, Mikhail Filimonov wrote the Telegram desktop application for Mac OS. In 2012, the competition for the development of the VKontakte messenger for iOS was won by Pyotr Yakovlev, but Durov quickly transferred him to work in Telegram.

The Book of Revelations and Interpol

In December 2013, entrepreneur Alexander Vasiliev flew in from Dubai to celebrate (second from right in the photo) the New Year together with VKontakte employees and Pavel Durov. The celebration was held at the Terrace restaurant behind St. Isaac's Cathedral, Vasiliev was sitting at a table next to photographer Alexander Mavrin, who invited model girls to the party. Vasiliev was interested in the recently launched Telegram messenger.

At that time, the service had already attracted those first 100,000 active users, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. According to Durov, the second wave of Telegram growth in Saudi Arabia is due to the fact that popular TV channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya began to start their own channels, and users followed them.

According to one of the former employees of VKontakte, it was not only about TV channels - it was no coincidence that Vasiliev was invited to a party at Terrace, and it was he who could contribute to promotion in the Arab countries. But how?

For a long time, Vasiliev headed the board of directors of the Ukrainian consortium EDAPS, which produced documents, in particular passports, not only in Ukraine, but also in the United States, and also worked with the countries of the Persian Gulf. The company is owned by Vasiliev's uncle, entrepreneur Yuri Sidorenko. In the spring of 2015, the US Supreme Court accused the concern of corruption: in 2005-2010, company representatives paid bribes to Maurizio Siciliano, an official of the International Civil Aviation Organization, who was in charge of projects related to machine-readable documents. According to investigators, in exchange for his help, Siciliano received money every month, as well as assistance in finding a job for his son in the EDAPS structures in the UAE, where Sidorenko and Vasiliev lived. According to the case file, the main project that Siciliano lobbied for the Ukrainians was the introduction of electronic passports for Interpol employees.

An important piece of evidence for the prosecution was the e-mail correspondence between Siciliano and the owners of EDAPS, which the investigators, by permission of the court, had been reading through Gmail and Facebook for several years. In this case, Vasiliev served time in a Swiss prison and was extradited to the United States in April 2015. Close ties with the UAE have been established for him and his uncle for a long time - for example, in 2011 Sidorenko built the first Orthodox church in the country.

During the EDAPS scandal, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble, who had worked there for 14 years, resigned. After that, he opened a secure document company RKN Global in Dubai in partnership with EDAPS. Vasiliev helped Noble arrange a meeting with Durov. After rumors surfaced that Microsoft wanted to buy the Blackberry smartphone maker used by Interpol, the international police began to look for a messenger for internal correspondence.

Durov does not deny that he met with Interpol, but on a different issue: he found out whether he would be extradited at the request of the Russian authorities in the event of an aggravation of the situation around VKontakte and Telegram, and made sure that people like him were not handed over through Interpol . According to him, no partnership ideas were discussed in detail. (Noble did not respond to The Secret's request.)

Vasiliev said that he helped promote Telegram, but did not share details: “I help ideas that I believe in. All this is a non-public story due to the people who are involved in it. I can say that these were people who could influence many others.” Sources close to the Telegram team said that Vasilyev could have advised the new messenger to top managers of Arab telecommunications companies and other members of the local elite, which rhymes with Hyder's tweet about recommending Telegram to be used in government agencies in Saudi Arabia.

Durov denied the assumptions about business ties with Vasiliev and called information about such a promotion in the elite of Saudi Arabia "game".

Vasiliev lured several programmers who worked on Telegram to him. He launched an application that, in terms of functionality, repeats Durov's messenger, Actor. Former VKontakte tester Ivan Gusev introduced Vasiliev to Telegram developer Stepan Korshakov, who took over the project. It was not difficult to lure Korshakov - by that time, his relationship with Durov had deteriorated. When Vasilyev was convicted, funding for the work on the application ceased. Korshakov continued to develop Actor, the company received investments from the leaders of the Fotostrana social network and is working on the project. There are 10,000 users and the idea is to focus the messenger on b2b communications.

Now Vasiliev, according to him, has found his life's work and is developing the Book of Revelations application, which predicts fate by date of birth. By the way, it was created by Vyacheslav Krylov, who won Durov's competitions for the development of Telegram clients.

open source

Telegram was launched when the WhatsApp application of Jan Koum, a native of Ukraine, was already popular all over the world. Another competitor - Viber - had tens of millions of users in Iran, Russia and other countries. In addition, local messengers developed in some regions: Hike in India, WeChat in China, Line in Japan. To become noticeable in the market, Durov needed to loudly declare himself. The stake on security and the "top-secret protocol" played an important role, although Durov was criticized for it by many experts and competitors - he allegedly builds marketing on the fear of users. Durov also created an open platform based on the Telegram API, where any programmer can create clients and their applications.

According to Priori Data, in 2015 in Italy, Telegram was downloaded 2 million times on iOS and Android (although WhatsApp still leads the way and ranks first among all applications). Programmer Riccardo Padovani (who works for the drone company Archon and supports open source) believes that the main reason for the popularity of the messenger in the country is the strong open source community that promotes open source products like Telegram. Such projects are loved there: for example, the Libreoffice office suite is used even by the Italian army.

In addition, Windows Phones still dominate Italy, thanks to Nokia, and Padovani says Telegram performs better on the platform than WhatsApp. In Italy, there is a popular SpacoBot bot that makes obscene jokes in large groups, for some it has become an excuse to download Telegram.

Following the users, officials and ministries began to open their channels in Telegram. The parish of the Catholic Church in Pompeii started a channel for the sermons of the Pope, and then the channel was opened by the Ministry of Economy and Finance - @MEF_GOV.

WhatsApp was the most popular app in Brazil in 2015, with around 70% of smartphone users using it, according to Nielsen. In February 2015, a Brazilian court ruled to block the messenger, but the service was never turned off. Against the background of these news, 2.5 million local residents joined Telegram. According to Priori Data statistics, in 2015 Telegram got almost 10 million downloads on Android in Brazil (versus 691,000 on iOS).

This was achieved thanks to the ZapZap service, the most successful application on the Telegram API (more than 6 million downloads on iOS alone). Users of such applications are considered Telegram users because they are stored on Durov's servers. In an interview with The Secret of the Firm, ZapZap founder Eric Costa said that "ZapZap gave life to Telegram in Brazil and turned it into a social network." When a user likes an app, it sends an invite and calls their friends - that's how it spreads. ZapZap has over 20,000 user-created groups. The company regularly communicates with Durov's team to resolve technical issues. Recently, the Brazilian authorities launched a program to support outsourcing projects in order to reduce the cost of royalties to foreign companies like Microsoft. So far, Costa has not received any support.

Large companies have also built applications on the Telegram API. For example, Samsung launched its Socializer based on the service, but did not achieve success (10,000 downloads on Android; Samsung did not respond to the Secret's request about this).

Prohibited

In 2014, Telegram showed explosive growth in Iran. Locals joke that the biggest migration in history has taken place - from Viber to Telegram. Due to the Israeli roots of Viber, this service was banned in the country, and 20 million users gradually switched to Durov's messenger. Viber CEO Mikhail Shmilov did not comment on Telegram's breakthrough, but clarified that "Viber is now available there via VPN, which complicates the user experience."

Iranian politicians addressed the residents of the country on Telegram during the election campaign. The video of former President Mohammad Khatami was viewed by 3 million users in a day. "Telegram is much simpler and clearer," political activist Ali Alemni, who campaigned for voters to join Telegram, told The Associated Press. Following the results of the elections, the authorities named Telegram as one of the important channels that led them to victory.

Telegram was accused of being used by ISIS terrorists (an organization banned in Russia), because in 2015 it was the only one with secure end-2-end encryption with self-deleting messages. The channels caused a great resonance, since, according to Vocativ, the terrorists even collected money for weapons through the application. In November, Durov banned 78 channels dedicated to ISIS.

With the growing popularity of the messenger, the authorities have questions for its authors. Iranian cyber police demand to transfer servers with user data to Iran and threaten to block; From time to time, Telegram becomes partially or completely unavailable. The police have already arrested the administrators of 20 groups, accusing them of spreading “immoral content.”

In 2014, at a press conference with the participation of Russian Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Vaezi, the talk turned to the fact that countries would support each other in terms of "security and politics." Loyalty to Russians is perhaps one of the reasons why Telegram is not yet blocked in this country.

Recently, the Iranian authorities held a tender for the development of their own messenger. When it appears, they can block Telegram to force users to switch to a local service. By the way, the winners of the tender are creating a messenger on the Actor Korshakov platform.

The statements of the authorities about the blocking of Telegram are in its favor so far: the messenger is gaining more and more fans among freedom fighters. Claims of increased censorship motivate users to look for more secure messengers, and they think of Telegram first.

For example, in Korea, the news that the state will control people through the popular KakaoTalk service brought millions of users to Telegram. According to research firm Ranky.co, KakaoTalk lost 400,000 users in one week, while Telegram was downloaded by a million Koreans. “Through Telegram, Korean users can promote their culture,” Durov promised in an interview.

In November 2014, WhatsApp users in India became