Telegram’s Durov will make money on the stock market
900 million users and a valuation of 30 billion dollars: Durov reels off the mind-boggling numbers of Telegram, his messaging app. And it aims for the stock market. Facts, numbers and insights
The numbers of Telegram, the messaging app founded by the Russian Pavel Durov, make your head spin. It has raised approximately $2 billion in funding since 2021, including $1 billion from bonds and $750 million from additional issuances in 2021 and $270 million in 2022. It also recently reached 900 million users monthly active users, up from 500 million at the beginning of 2021. It is still far behind in comparison with Whatsapp: Meta's product has 1.8 billion monthly active users, while the encrypted communication app Signal had 30 million in February 2024.
TELEGRAM: 30 BILLION DOLLAR VALUATIONS
Durov reeled off this data during an interview, his first since 2017, with the Financial Times . “We hope to turn a profit next year, if not this year,” Durov said. The goal is to list his company on the stock exchange. Potential investors have offered the company “$30 billion-plus valuations” including “late-stage global technology funds.” The founder, who now lives in Dubai, has however ruled out wanting to sell his creation completely.
PLACEMENT ON THE MARKET AND SALES TO 'LOYAL USERS'
The owner Durov did not want to provide details about the timing for the placement on the market and the listing on the American market of his company, once Telegram reaches the necessary profitability and in the event of favorable market conditions. At the moment, analysts estimate that if the placement were to take place before the end of March 2026, bondholders could convert the senior unsecured debt into equity at a discount of between 10% and 20% to Telegram's IPO price , an incentive for the company to go public before that date. In that case, Telegram could consider selling a portion of shares to loyal users. “This remains a possibility if we wanted to raise funds, for example, to try our hand at little-explored fields related to artificial intelligence,” Durov said.
DUROV PROMISES TO MODERATE TELEGRAM CONTENTS
The company only has about 50 full-time employees. In recent years it has become very popular, also becoming a tool for institutional communications, for governments and officials around the world. However, several analysts have highlighted that the platform could lend itself to hosting a hotbed of criminal activity and extremist, terrorist and disinformation content. For this reason, Durov guaranteed that Telegram plans to improve its moderation processes and "implement mechanisms linked to artificial intelligence to address potential problems of this type".
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VKONTAKTE AND RUSSIAN SERVICES
Durov also has other strings to his bow. Having founded VKontakte, co-founding the most famous social network in the country, some researchers have warned, has earned him the nickname "Russia's Mark Zuckerberg". However, Durov sold his shares in the social network after receiving pressure from Russian services to gain access to information on Ukrainian users. Not only that, he sold his shares in VK to Kremlin-friendly oligarchs for $300 million under duress.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/durov-di-telegram-fara-cassa-in-borsa/ on Mon, 11 Mar 2024 15:46:52 +0000.