{"id":151287,"date":"2026-03-13T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/?post_type=news&p=151287"},"modified":"2026-03-11T22:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:02:53","slug":"durov-vtratyv-dvi-tretyny-statkiv-cherez-obval-vartosti-telegram","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/news\/durov-vtratyv-dvi-tretyny-statkiv-cherez-obval-vartosti-telegram\/","title":{"rendered":"Durov Loses Two-Thirds of His Fortune After Telegram Valuation Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fortune of Pavel Durov<\/span><\/span>, the owner of the messenger Telegram<\/span><\/span>, has dropped from $17.1 billion to $6.6 billion, according to Forbes<\/span><\/span>, citing investment bankers.<\/p>\n

The 61% decline in his wealth is attributed to falling valuations of comparable technology companies.<\/p>\n

Sources say that over the past year no new investor presentations from Telegram have appeared publicly, and the company\u2019s initial public offering<\/span><\/span> may not take place anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now is not the best time for a listing: Telegram is blocked in key markets, including Russia<\/span><\/span> and Iran<\/span><\/span>. The company is unlikely to go public at a lower valuation than the one previously stated by Durov,\u201d one investment banker said.<\/p>\n

For a more conservative estimate, analysts suggest comparing the company with its closest competitor \u2014 the American messaging platform Snapchat<\/span><\/span>. In terms of monthly users, the companies are comparable. By the end of 2025, Snapchat had 946 million users, while Telegram\u2019s audience exceeded 1 billion. However, Snapchat\u2019s revenue in 2025 reached $5.9 billion, nearly three times higher than Telegram\u2019s projected revenue of about $2 billion. Snapchat finished the year with a $460 million loss, while Telegram reported a $222 million loss in the first half of the year alone. As a result, Snapchat\u2019s market capitalization nearly halved over the year to $8.7 billion, which influenced the reassessment of Telegram\u2019s valuation and Durov\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n

Another factor putting pressure on Durov\u2019s financial position is Telegram\u2019s bond obligations. The company\u2019s first bond issue, placed for five years with a 7% coupon, must be repaid on March 22, 2026. Durov has partially refinanced the debt but still needs to repay $1.1 billion. In June, the company issued new bonds worth $1.7 billion with a higher yield of 9%, reflecting increased risks for investors.<\/p>\n

Durov first appeared in the Forbes ranking in 2016. At that time, his wealth in the list of the \u201c200 richest businessmen in Russia\u201d was estimated at $600 million, and by 2018 he had become a billionaire. Forbes gave his fortune its highest valuation in 2021 \u2014 $17.2 billion \u2014 when Telegram issued its first convertible bonds tied to the price of a future IPO. At that time, investors valued the company at around $30\u201335 billion. Durov himself estimated the service at $30 billion in 2024, a figure bankers discussed ahead of a potential Telegram stock market listing.<\/p>\n

According to one market analyst speaking anonymously, Durov could partially settle with investors using Telegram shares without conducting an IPO.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the funds that bought the second bond issue \u2014 these include BlackRock<\/span><\/span>, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority<\/span><\/span>, Mubadala Investment Company<\/span><\/span>, and other major investors. Durov may have promised them a stake in the company,\u201d the analyst noted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":151288,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-151287","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/151287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=151287"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=151287"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=151287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}