Referring to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, the Financial Times writes that the platform is used mostly by Ukrainian coders.
У articles about Telegram’s prospects against the backdrop of detention of Durov in France, the publication mentions the messenger’s employees. The journalists are interested in whether the founder will be able to continue running the platform or whether this task will fall to a small group of loyal managers.
Earlier, Durov said Telegram has a small number of employees including 30 proven engineers. According to him, he chose his team through a programming competition — the winners were mostly Ukrainians.
Another source describes Telegram employees as «super young» people who were brought from Eastern Europe and offered an annual salary of half a million dollars. Soon after, some of them posted photos of their Porsches on social media.
«There is practically no outflow. They share the same values and believe in the company’s mission,» Durov said earlier this year.
Pavel Durov makes decisions centrally. He describes the company’s pace of innovation as closer to that of a startup, despite having almost a billion users:
«I don’t like to think of myself as a co-director, owner, or anything else. I like to think of myself as a production leader. No function is launched without my deep involvement».
But this position also has a downside. The question arises as to whether the company will be able to operate as successfully if its leader is unable to fully manage it due to some circumstances.
Previously Telegram representative commented for ITC.UA information on the number of employees. According to him, the company employs much more people than 30 or 60.
«Telegram has 30 developers who build apps and their infrastructure, but the core Telegram team consists of about 60 people. This team is intentionally small and filled with experts in their fields. As a result, Telegram can respond much faster than companies with huge teams and long management chains».
The core team is indeed about 60 people, but there are also separate moderation and violation response teams. Telegram does not have data centers in the UAE, and no user data is stored there, as some publications have noted. A company representative said that there is currently «no viable way to break the encryption used by Telegram».
Source: Financial Times
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