"In the departing year, the messenger [Telegram] has dramatically increased its user base. After malfunction of Meta (Facebook), Instagram and WhatsApp in October 2021, 70 million new users registered in Telegram", Forbes said on Wednesday.
Forbes noted that Telegram placed its own bonds for the first time in 2021 and raised $1 billion. As of December 20, Durov''s total wealth is estimated at $17.24 billion.
Durov is followed by Tatyana Bakalchuk (+$11.92 billion), the founder of the largest Russian online retailer Wildberries; Andrey Melnichenko (+$10.60 billion), the main beneficiary of Russian fertiliser producer EuroChem Group and coal energy company SUEK; Alexey Mordashov (+$6.83 billion), the main shareholder and chairman of Russia's Severstal; and Vagit Alekperov (+$6.44 billion), the president of the leading Russian oil company LUKOIL.
According to the list, in total Russian billionaires made a fortune of $74.51 billion in 2021. Forbes noted that 70 of the 104 Russian billionaires increased their wealth in the outgoing year. Forbes named explosive growth in online trading, malfunctions in the IT-sphere, record profitability of metallurgists, and skyrocketing oil and gas prices as the main reasons for billionaires' income in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.