Du Rove's Channel

2024-05-03 13:11:55 Being mindful about what kind of information we consume is just as important for our wellbeing as what food we eat. Words may shape our reality in more ways than we think.

That’s why I never watch horror movies and instead prefer films showing uplifting success stories (“Wonka” was my favorite last year). Popular songs, replayed many times, can work like magical spells that plant suggestions in our brains, so I carefully select my playlist to make sure their lyrics don’t include undesirable scenarios. I like to start my day with mid-20th century songs that express joy, such as “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” or “What a Wonderful World”

Telegram, unlike other apps, doesn’t throw random content at its users — people receive only the news from channels they have joined, and they can unsubscribe any time. This architecture helps us remain an independent platform that doesn’t promote any narrative and instead gives people the full power to choose what they like to see in their feed Open / Comment

2024-05-02 12:54:57 Interestingly, most people voted for Ukrainian to be the subject of my new post. So here you go — below is everything you wanted to know about the relationship of the Telegram CEO with the Ukrainian language (but were afraid to ask ).

As my mom’s family comes from Ukraine, I was curious about this language since my teenage years. As a linguist by education, I was also fascinated by the differences and similarities between Ukrainian and Russian.

That’s why in 2008, Ukrainian was the first language we translated the interface of VK (my previous large project) into. Back then, most of the websites popular in Ukraine were still in Russian, but I wanted to give our millions of users from Ukraine the freedom to customize their experience. To do this, I had to rewrite most of VK’s code, replacing hardcoded Russian phrases with variables that we then translated into Ukrainian with the help of volunteers.

We were happy with the result: this launch announcement, which is recorded in the Web Archive, will make many people feel nostalgic — https://web.archive.org/web/20120104053631/http://vkontakte.ru/blog?id=70

For the next few months, I was exclusively using the Ukrainian version of VK to make sure I hadn’t missed any Russian words still hardcoded in VK’s code. I inevitably learnt some Ukrainian as a result. I also wanted VK to be the first popular website in Ukraine to introduce correct case endings for names in Ukrainian (in English, “Paul” in “Photos with Paul” and “About Paul” doesn’t change, but in Slavic languages like Ukrainian “Paul” in these phrases should have different endings depending on the case). As the one who was implementing the support for this part of Ukrainian grammar in VK’s code, I was able to learn its rules in the process.

Soon after we launched the Ukrainian version of VK in 2008, I went to Kyiv to celebrate. I was fascinated by how some words sounded in Ukrainian and would take photos with random notices in the background. People in Kyiv were very welcoming, so over the years I would come back to make new friends who would then teach me new words and fun expressions.

To keep practicing after 2022, I started completing Ukrainian lessons in the DuoLingo app. Using my DurovLingo account there, I scored 5403 experience points in Ukrainian. Currently, when browsing Telegram channels, I understand about 95% of written and 85% of spoken Ukrainian. Sometimes I have to ask one of the Telegram engineers from Ukraine to educate me on the nuances of meaning.

Overall, learning Ukrainian helped me better understand other Slavic languages: for example, my comprehension of Polish and Czech increased noticeably as a side effect. Most importantly, being able to read Ukrainian without translation allows me to make sure Telegram’s moderation processes are fair to all sides and inaccurate translation doesn’t influence any decisions in difficult cases that get escalated to the CEO level.

While Ukraine accounts for less than 3% of Telegram’s global audience, more than 70% of Ukrainians use Telegram for messaging and news, and we’re seeing more and more content in Ukrainian being published.

I hope that knowing Ukrainian — and foreign languages in general — makes me more competent as a leader of a neutral platform where rules are applied equally to all sides. We strive to be a place where everyone is treated fairly regardless of their origin and where ideas can compete freely regardless of their language Open / Comment

2024-04-30 13:11:50 While reviewing our design contest submissions, I was inspired by a message effects project. So we reused our reactions UI and animated emoji effects to put together this video demo.

Set if you want this implemented. Open / Comment

2024-04-26 12:50:36 This month we added 17 new features. These are not just minor improvements or bug fixes. Most of these new additions significantly expand how people use Telegram.

For example, users can explore recommended channels (Search -> Channels) similar to ones they have already joined, while infinite live locations can turn groups into small location-based networks for families and close friends. Custom emoji transform good old polls into infinitely adjustable surveys, while the newly added My Profile section (with birthdays, personal channels, username collectibles, and pinned stories) makes Telegram a much more social space. Notifications for story reactions make posting stories more fun, while new admin tools in groups simplify moderating large communities. And don’t get me started on the epic Sticker Maker we introduced 10 days ago…

17 new features in one month! Other apps consider themselves fast if they manage to add this many features in a year Open / Comment

2024-04-24 17:27:49 In February 2022, I suggested to restrict Telegram channels in Russia and Ukraine, because they were being used for military propaganda. However, both our Ukrainian and Russian users vehemently opposed restrictions, prioritizing the freedom to access information, even when it’s biased. I supported our users’ choice

We still ban accounts and bots that collect coordinates to target strikes or post direct personal information with calls to violence. We don’t want Telegram to be a tool for violence — so please report such channels/bots to us if you see them

As for general news/propaganda channels, we receive official letters from Apple that indicate that certain changes here may be unavoidable, at least for users accessing Telegram on iPhones from Ukrainian SIM cards. As I explained in my interview, to stay accessible to its users, Telegram must consider requests coming from App Stores

Were it entirely up to us, we would always give our users what they ask for: access to uncensored information and opinions so that they can make their own decisions. However, it's not always up to us Open / Comment

2024-04-23 12:06:00 A tech blogger, Pavel Fedorov, just earned $80,000+ in TON from selling his username @pavel on the Fragment auction platform.

As an early adopter of Telegram, Mr. Fedorov claimed the @pavel username 9 years ago for free. He put it up for auction a week ago. After a fierce bidding war, the crypto entrepreneur @founder, who owns @crypto and many other Telegram handles, won the auction. In a surprising twist, @founder gifted me the @pavel name earlier today.

Congratulations to Pavel Fedorov, and many thanks to @founder for the generous gift. This shows how Telegram users benefit from direct ownership over their names. $350M worth of Telegram usernames and anonymous numbers have been sold in the last 18 months.

The newest versions of Telegram allow you to see when and for how much a username was sold. To check it out, you can go to my channel’s profile and tap on @pavel or @snow. A few minutes ago, I bought @paul on Fragment for 10,000 TON — to prevent more people from giving me generous gifts Open / Comment

2024-04-17 11:24:13 The full version of my interview with Tucker is out

Open / Comment

2024-04-15 15:08:41 Our newest update lets you make your own stickers right here on Telegram — no additional image-editing software needed. Just go to the recent stickers panel and select “+”.

Creating sticker packs has never been so easy. The sticker platform has existed on Telegram since 2015, but it has now been truly democratized.

There are 16 other new features we are shipping this month, and most of them are already included in the latest version of Telegram. But I’ll tell about them later — for now, I’ll let you focus on sticker creation Open / Comment

2024-04-10 21:24:40 Telegram reached 900 million monthly users.

Half of these 900 millions users open Telegram daily. According to DataAI, Telegram is the th most used and th most downloaded app in the world.

What’s more — Telegram was cash flow positive in the 1st quarter of 2024 and is on track to become profitable this year. This solidifies our position as an independent company that puts its users first.

When we started developing Telegram 12 years ago, we believed that people are inherently smart. And smart people will always choose the freedom and quality of Telegram over the restrictions and mediocrity of legacy apps. It seems we were right.

We’ve always believed in you. Thank you for believing in us too Open / Comment

2024-03-18 20:55:12 Last week, we issued $330M worth of bonds to ensure Telegram can keep expanding at an accelerated speed.

This bond offering was oversubscribed, and we were delighted to have global funds of the highest caliber with impeccable reputations as participants. The terms of the bonds (when adjusted for the Federal Reserve rate) were the most favorable for Telegram in the history of our company.

I am proud that every time we issue bonds we get better at this process. The increased demand for our bonds shows that global financial institutions value Telegram’s growth in audience and monetization. This will further solidify our position as an independent platform that is able to challenge the “Goliaths” of our industry. Open / Comment