Telegram with 900 million users is going IPO

Pavel Durov said that the monthly audience of the messenger has reached 900 million people. P. Durov told the Financial Times that Dubai-based Telegram has become one of the world's most popular social media programs, generating "hundreds of millions of dollars" in revenue since introducing advertising and premium subscription services two years ago. And the cost per monthly user is $0.7 per year.
"We hope to be profitable next year, if not this year," the Russian-born founder said in his first public interview since 2017. He added that the number of monthly active users of the platform was 500 million at the beginning of 2021, but now it is 900 million.
In 2007, Durov was hailed as the "Mark Zuckerberg of Russia" after co-founding VKontakte, the country's most popular social media network, in his native St. Petersburg. A defender of freedom of speech, he founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother. According to Durov, he fled Russia a year after VK refused to share the information of some Ukrainian users with Russian security agencies. Durov said that under pressure, he sold his shares in VK for $300 million to Kremlin-friendly oligarchs. Telegram will likely aim for a U.S. listing once the company reaches profitability and market conditions are favorable, two people close to the matter said. Durov declined to comment on a timeline or possible location, but revealed that Telegram is "exploring several options."