[maqp]

Regarding transparency, imagine the faces of the journalists who in 2018 went to check Telegram's offices in Dubai and the Aramex employees who share the floor with Telegram said they've never even seen anyone enter Telegram's office spaces. Apparently Telegram's registered in Dubai just to evade taxes.

Source? Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1chIByzDhsg

Telegram supposedly doesn't make a profit, but not having to pay corporate taxes also allows them to hide their profits. Where are they working from? How many employees are there? Also given that they had to return their ICO money and pay 18M USD in fines[1], how are they funding the supposedly free app when [2] estimates the running costs of the app are about 200M USD / year?

[1] https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/icos/sec-orde...

[2] https://www.businessofapps.com/data/telegram-statistics/

[dijit]

if you're serious, then it's because of Pavel Durov's personal wealth.

if you're unfamiliar Pavel Durov created VK, which is a 'facebook-like' for Russia, although it's a bit more advanced than facebook, promoting piracy and some other stuff that wouldn't fly in the USA.

The Putin administration demanded Durov give access to personal data on the platform, Durov declined, went into self-imposed exile and the state confiscated his company. No VK is owned by the russian government, but Durov still had an enourmous personal wealth, something in the amount of 3 billion USD.

He started Telegram in exile from Russia in hopes of eventually making himself famous for being a free speech advocate, then using that fame to make money in other areas.

You can see his attempts with the TON blockchain thing and the new gaming platform. Adoption of telegram is failing, and his attempts at using telegram as a platform to gain wealth is also failing.

[maqp]

" if you're serious, then it's because of Pavel Durov's personal wealth."

Any source on the amount?

"if you're unfamiliar Pavel Durov created VK"

Ah I see, what's the business VK is on? How did Pavel Durov make his money? Did he spy on VK users and display targeted ads like Facebook does? If, is it a good idea to trust him after that?

"went into self-imposed exile"

He returned to Russia two months later once the (possibly bogus) charges on driving over police officer's foot were dropped.

"something in the amount of 3 billion USD."

Source?

"in hopes of eventually making himself famous for being a free speech advocate"

So he set up to create a service that

* by default allows the server to see the content of all chats,

* that allows the server to always see the content of all group chats, and

* that allows the server to always see the content of all Windows/Linux desktop clients.

It's OK to be for free speech, but achieving that requires privacy for the activists, and Telegram is anything but.

"then using that fame to make money in other areas."

Are these business dealings public knowledge? Does Telegram publish anything regarding their business. I'd like to see if the records show that he indeed is not selling user data behind everyone's backs.

"his attempts at using telegram as a platform to gain wealth is also failing"

My concern is mainly, when there's so much valuable data that gets accumulated daily, what if he changes Telegram's business model once he runs out of money and it's time to cash in.

[im3w1l]

Regardless of his seriousness, I appreciated this background.