Pavel Durov's Telegram made it to Time's list of the 100 most influential companies

The messenger Telegram, founded by billionaire Pavel Durov, has been included in Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential companies in the world. In the ranking, Telegram was categorized in the "Market Disrupters" category, along with the forecast exchange Kalshi, software provider Palantir, AI developer Mistral and social network TikTok.

"Telegram is either a worldwide symbol of free speech or a haven for lawbreakers - depending on who you ask," wrote Time correspondent Andrew Chow, the author of the article.

He added that Telegram has become known for helping people in armed conflict zones communicate with each other and with the outside world, while facing pressure from states for tighter controls on content on the platform.

In April, Russia began restricting access to Telegram, in response to which Durov declared "digital resistance". In turn, France continues to investigate the Telegram founder on suspicion of aiding and abetting the distribution of illegal images of children and other criminal activities. Durov denies any wrongdoing. He was briefly arrested in Paris in 2024, but France lifted Durov's travel restrictions last year.

Telegram has gained a billion monthly active users, launched premium subscriptions, an advertising platform and channels for news outlets, Time recalls. In 2024, Durov said that potential investors valued Telegram at more than $30 billion and that the company was exploring an IPO.

In 2024, the messenger, according to Durov, earned $547 million. In 2025, Telegram forecasted a profit of more than $700 million on revenue of $2 billion, WSJ sources said. According to the Financial Times, which reviewed unaudited financial reports, in the first half of 2025, Telegram's revenue grew by more than 65% year-on-year to $870 million. Over the same period, Telegram recorded a net loss of $222 million against a profit of $334 million a year earlier, the FT wrote. According to the interlocutor of the publication, this was due to the need to write off the value of the messenger's assets in Toncoin, the price of which fell in 2025 amid a general decline in the cryptocurrency market.

The top 100 most influential companies in the world according to Time also include the world's most expensive company Nvidia, technology giant Meta, major AI startups OpenAI and Anthropic and space giant SpaceX, which is about to go public.

"One of the key themes of this year's list was the power of narrative: the ability of a company and its leader to articulate a vision that one wants to follow and communicate it long enough and consistently enough for the rest of us to have time to understand and embrace it," the editorial board wrote.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor