Telegram's $540M profit overshadowed by Durov's legal woes
Telegram is celebrating its impressive achievements. Last year, it reported a profit of $540 million. Meanwhile, the app's founder, Pavel Durov, is facing significant legal challenges from France.
Telegram achieved an annual profit of $540 million, reports "The Financial Times." The company informed its investors that revenues had surged to $1.4 billion in 2024, up from $343 million the previous year.
Despite these promising results, Telegram is dealing with serious issues involving its founder. Pavel Durov was detained by French authorities in Paris in August of the previous year.
As "FT" notes, Durov was born in Russia and holds citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates. France has accused him of failing to cooperate with French authorities investigating crimes committed through Telegram, including child exploitation and terrorism.
Telegram currently boasts over a billion monthly active users worldwide and is operated by a small team of about 60 employees. Most moderation tasks are outsourced to external contractors, "FT" explains.
The newspaper writes that the company acknowledged the French investigation could pose a challenge for its IPO (Initial Public Offering, the first public sale of company shares on the stock exchange) but expressed confidence that the issue could be resolved this year.
Pavel Durov contends that French authorities used the pretext of combating child sexual exploitation to detain him, stating, "their main goal has always been geopolitics," as he wrote on Telegram on Monday.
Durov claimed he refused a request from Nicolas Lerner, the head of French intelligence, to silence conservative voices in Romania before the country's upcoming elections. "Falsely implying Telegram did nothing to remove child porn is a manipulation tactic," he wrote on X. French intelligence has denied Durov's allegations.
