Pavel Durov, the Russian entrepreneur famous for building the VKontakte social network and for co-creating the Telegram messenger, signaled an interest in sharing personal life stories. The development appeared on his official Telegram channel in English, reaching a broad audience of followers who tune in for his updates.
In a post that echoed his signature style, he asked readers if he should begin posting such stories here. The message, framed as a question to the audience, hinted at a new personal dimension in his public communications and invited feedback from a massive online community that follows his channel closely.
The Telegram channel, one of the platform’s most followed spaces, boasted about 13.4 million subscribers at the time. When the post went live, it drew more than 300 thousand views. The accompanying poll showed around 61 thousand people in favor of sharing life stories, while fewer than 6 thousand opposed the idea, illustrating a strong appetite among followers for more personal content from the founder.
Earlier that year, reports indicated that Durov was detained while disembarking from a private plane at Paris Le Bourget airport around 21:00 Moscow time. On August 28, a Paris court indicted the Telegram founder on six counts. The charges included refusal to transfer information to intelligence services, involvement in the possession of pornography, including material involving minors, and involvement in the acquisition, transportation, storage, and sale of drugs.
Following the indictment, Durov was placed under judicial custody with a bail of five million euros and the obligation to report to the police twice a week. He was also prohibited from leaving French territory while the case proceeded through the legal system.
Previously, there had been coverage suggesting Telegram would develop its own YouTube analogue, expanding the platform’s capabilities beyond messaging into video hosting and broader online content distribution.