History and development of the Telegram messenger

Many people envy the success of Telegram messenger. For a rather short time, Pavel Durov could make the service popular worldwide. How did he manage it? What events preceded the creation and rapid development of messenger number 1 in the world?

Telegram messenger: at the very beginning

The history of Telegram began in the winter of 2011. At the end of the State Duma elections, Russia was shaken by large-scale actions of protest, meetings, and processions of opposition which disagreed with the election results. Strangely enough, coordination and correspondence of opponents were made through social network “VKontakte”. The government addressed the CEO of “VK” Pavel Durov with the demand to ban the opposition members’ accounts, but he refused.

5 days later he received a summons from the prosecutor’s office, and he ignored it. Security officers decided to visit Pavel. The investigator of the prosecutor’s office, together with the OMON group came to Durov home, but nobody let them in. OMON did not dare to break the door, and Pavel Durov realized that he could not send a message to his brother and warn about danger. He had a revelation – a new, more secure system is necessary. This situation was resolved by the New Year.

In March 2012 there was another conflict in which Pavel was involved. He learned that co-founders of “VK” are trying to sell the shares behind his back. Pavel decided to block the accounts of partners. Then it was reported in the VK network that the auction on page numbers of id3 and id4 is organized. At the same time, Pavel realized that he only had 12% of shares. Indeed, it is hard to tell what motivated Durov to launch the development of Telegram: fear of security officers or fight against partners. Anyway, in April 2012 the development of the Telegraph started. In fact, it was the primary name of the messenger.

Pavel Durov understands that all the new things are upgraded old ones. In this regard, knowing about the shortcomings of WhatsApp, he makes a decision to take this service as the basis of his project. The limitation of “donor” is the lack of servers for the storage of a history of correspondences. For convenience, all data was stored on phones. The data transmission rate was important for Durov. Respectively, he tested the new project himself. The overall process of creation was quite prolonged. Eventually, an upgraded version of IOS was created, and developers started Telegram again.

Why was Durov forced to launch the project promptly?

In April 2013 some very important events took place.

Durov’s partners in “VK” decided to sell their shares. In turn, the investment fund of I. Shcherbovich of UCP got 48% of shares of the social network.

Pavel Durov, driving through the city in his car, hit the police officer. The latter rolled several meters on Mercedes hood. Pavel did not calm down and made several controversial comments towards law enforcement agencies. They were not that forgiving and filed criminal charges to him. Pavel had to lie low.

On the air of the “Dozhd” channel, Leonid Parfyonov informed that Durov decided to create a new social network and went to America. Here his new “partner” Shcherbovich indignantly said that Durov cannot create a new project within the walls of “VK without his involvement. Therefore, Durov renamed the project Telegram at once.

In April 2014 the conflict with investors reached the maximum speed. At first, the fund received partial control over assets of the new messenger. It caused Durov to leave “VK”, but later he changed his mind and left his CEO’s post. He simultaneously started litigations with Shcherbovich’s fund.

In September UCP b Mail.Ru Group signed the settlement agreement. Only at that time, Pavel could regain complete ownership over Telegram.

The problems connected with Durov’s unwillingness to transfer the user keys of Telegram

The first warning signs appeared after Durov’s words that Telegram will not give out a word from users’ correspondence. The same was related to their personal data. The well-known words told by Durov within the TechCrunch Disrupt conference became the climax. He said: “WhatsApp sucks”. Once again Pavel said that the fear of losing personal correspondence is stronger than the fear of terrorists. Firstly the authorities of Iran reacted. For ensuring national security the messenger was blocked by the decision of the court. At that time throughout the region of 40 million people used Telegram! These negative events took place during the 2015 – 2016 period.

Problems with the Russian authorities appeared in 2017. In June Roskomnadzor demanded to enter the messenger in the register of distributors of information. Durov was not against under the condition that he is not forced to ensure respect for “anticonstitutional and technically impracticable Yarovaya’s Law”.

In July the representatives of FSB with the requirement to issue detailed information on 6 users who were suspected of terrorist attack addressed Durov. Durov ignored the inquiry. In a month the court made the decision to fine Telegram 800 thousand rubles.

At the moment the harassments of Telegram continue. The management of law enforcement agencies says that Telegram will slow down and get bugs further. Durov is looking for professional lawyers to challenge the judgment as it contradicts Article 23 of the Constitution of Russia.

New Telegram project

Understanding that the Blockchain technology is the future, Durov makes the decision on creation of the cryptocurrency TON project where Gram coin will become a financial instrument. Durov puts ambitious purposes before himself and the team of developers: to reformat the Internet. The Blockchain technology which was specifically adapted under social network is the cornerstone of the project. The project has to be launched until October 31, 2019. In the closed ICO, Durov could attract $1.7 billion on its development. Trial sales of coins have already started on July 10.

Thus, despite active counteraction of the authorities, and problems with partners, Durov could create messenger number 1 in the world. It is considered one of the most reliable and safe messengers. Its triumphal procession and extended development of popularity will be able to grant the TON project.