Telegram profits soar amid legal storm over founder Durov
Telegram is boasting about its successful results. Last year, it made a profit of $540 million. Meanwhile, legal proceedings are ongoing against the app's founder, Pavel Durov, as France levels serious allegations against him.
Telegram reported a profit of $540 million last year, according to "The Financial Times." The company informed investors that its revenues reached $1.4 billion in 2024, up from $343 million the previous year.
Despite these strong results, Telegram faces significant challenges related to its founder. Pavel Durov was detained by French authorities in Paris in August of last year.
As "FT" notes, Durov was born in Russia but holds citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates. French authorities accuse him of refusing to cooperate with French services investigating crimes committed using Telegram, including child exploitation and terrorism.
Telegram currently has over a billion monthly active users worldwide and is managed by a relatively small team of about 60 employees. "FT" explains that most moderation tasks are outsourced to external contractors.
The newspaper points out that the company acknowledged the French investigation might pose a challenge for its IPO (Initial Public Offering, the first time a company's shares are offered to the public on the stock exchange). However, the company noted that the issue might be resolved this year.
Pavel Durov claims that the French authorities used the fight against child sexual exploitation as a pretext to detain him, arguing that their primary goal has always been geopolitics, as he stated on Telegram on Monday.
Durov alleged that he refused a request from Nicolas Lerner, the head of French intelligence, to suppress conservative voices in Romania before the upcoming elections. "Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic," he wrote on X. French intelligence denied Durov's claims.
