The Korea Times met with Telegram Founder Pavel Durov exclusively, on the sidelines of this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC), Barcelona, Spain, last week. Durov, well-known as the "Russian Zuckerberg," expressed his views on key international issues, Telegram's updated business strategies focusing on the Korean market and his passion to understand the Korean culture in 20-minutes in-person interview. The following is a transcript of the interview ― ED.
Q: After Korea cracked down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign, which threatened the popularity of Kakao Talk, more Korean users switched to Telegram to seek "asylum." But, your communications failed to keep the momentum in terms of user base. Do you have any plans to introduce new services or to expand your businesses in Korea?
A: "So I think it is responsible for us to come up with a sustainable business model in the next two years. We want to continue to develop features to respond to the specific needs of the Korean market. We opened up our platform to third-party developers. We expect more and more Korean third-party developers to start leveraging our platform to introduce Korea-specific features.
Since last year, we've been focusing on creating emoticon stickers. Korean artists can upload stickers on our platform. Also, I know that in Southeast Asian countries, including in Korea, voice messaging services are really popular. Telegram revolutionized voice messaging, creating a very convenient way to send voice messages.
We are the only cross-platform messaging application that allows you to send messages even where there is a very weak network signal. We are happy to see that more Korean people use Telegram. We will focus on accelerating our efforts to develop applications and services that fit desktop and tablet experiences."
Q: Korea's opposition party lawmakers were staging the country's first filibuster for nearly 50 years to block an anti-terrorism bill that gives more surveillance powers to the country's spy agency. This is one of the hot issues in Korea. Do you think the bill will be effective or hurt "freedom of expression?"
A: "Yes, I think this is overly simplistic. Measures that are being discussed will not work because, first of all, even if existing secure apps were blocked to the Korean market, terrorists would still be able to have access as they use VPN to disguise their location.
So, I think that the government's efforts should be more focused on finding solutions to these serious problems outside technology. And speaking particularly of Korea, given its neighbour to the North, Koreans should be cautious not to introduce any such measures reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984."
Q: Despite the continued growth of messaging apps, some say Telegram's business portfolio is still dependent upon a certain service. What do think about a possibility that Telegram may be expanded into social networking service (SNS) tool?
A: "Current trend is social media. Messaging applications have become the starting point for everyday activity for smartphone users. That's why so many such services are integrated with messaging solutions. That's why Telegram has been the only messaging app with 100 percent open free API. I believe that Telegram is leading this trend."
Q: Do you think Telegram is safe in database encryption?
A: "Security is our top priority. Tightened security is what makes Telegram solutions practically perfect. We started in 2013 by creating custom-built encrypted data protocol; this was the groundwork for our whole project. For us, since we have been secure since day one, it allows us to avoid sudden mistakes. We receive lots of feedback from people around the world. But nobody can manage to break our encryption. We offer $300,000 to anyone who manages to break our encryption, but the prize hasn't been claimed yet."
Q: The Islamic State (IS) was said to use Telegram as a means of communicating and distributing its propaganda material since Telegram introduced a "channel" feature, letting users broadcast messages to an unlimited number of subscribers. Telegram is quite similar to WhatsApp but is well-known for its high-level of encryption on broadcasting channels. Have you taken proper measures to deal with the issue?
A: "We've heard that IS is using Telegram services as their channels to broadcast and promote their propaganda. We have taken needed measures to take down all of these. We created teams to monitor groups and users help us shut down IS public channels by reporting their activity."
Q: How much do you know about Korean culture or K-Pop?
A: "I am well-aware that Korean youth are the trendsetters in Asia in terms of fashion, lifestyle and music. That's why I believe Telegram could help promote this through the use of our Channels to broadcast your own messages to the world. By using Telegram, Korean users can further promote Korean culture.
Seoul is a very advanced city and has great infrastructure. I was impressed by the scale of the operations and quality of food and again the fashion of Korean people. They are stylish. People are generally friendly and nice. I hope to visit again later this year for a longer stay. I would like to talk with more Korean users of Telegram services and learn what they would like to see on our platform."
Q: The legal wrangling over a federal court order requiring iPhone maker Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone is intensifying. Do you think Apple will be cooperative with the U.S. Justice Department to offer a unique encryption key?
A: "I support Tim Cook's position. There's a real risk that if your iPhone gets stolen, without encryption you could be blackmailed, for example. If Apple builds tools to unlock encryption, I think that's too dangerous. Apple is defending privacy and security for millions of people using iPhones. I know the situation could be the same for Samsung."
Q: What are the benefits of small government, as you are a strong supporter of free markets?
A: "I am a big supporter of the free market. Technology development is very fast. It's important to allow individuals and businesses within the economy to self-regulate as much as possible. Let them quickly adopt to the evolving society. Traditionally, small companies have been more successful in quickly adopting to the change in consumer needs.
Governments ultimately should be the fair judge in any possible disputes between businesses, and that should be their No. 1 role in society."
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A: "So I think it is responsible for us to come up with a sustainable business model in the next two years. We want to continue to develop features to respond to the specific needs of the Korean market. We opened up our platform to third-party developers. We expect more and more Korean third-party developers to start leveraging our platform to introduce Korea-specific features.
Since last year, we've been focusing on creating emoticon stickers. Korean artists can upload stickers on our platform. Also, I know that in Southeast Asian countries, including in Korea, voice messaging services are really popular. Telegram revolutionized voice messaging, creating a very convenient way to send voice messages.
We are the only cross-platform messaging application that allows you to send messages even where there is a very weak network signal. We are happy to see that more Korean people use Telegram. We will focus on accelerating our efforts to develop applications and services that fit desktop and tablet experiences."
Q: Korea's opposition party lawmakers were staging the country's first filibuster for nearly 50 years to block an anti-terrorism bill that gives more surveillance powers to the country's spy agency. This is one of the hot issues in Korea. Do you think the bill will be effective or hurt "freedom of expression?"
A: "Yes, I think this is overly simplistic. Measures that are being discussed will not work because, first of all, even if existing secure apps were blocked to the Korean market, terrorists would still be able to have access as they use VPN to disguise their location.
So, I think that the government's efforts should be more focused on finding solutions to these serious problems outside technology. And speaking particularly of Korea, given its neighbour to the North, Koreans should be cautious not to introduce any such measures reminiscent of George Orwell's 1984."
Q: Despite the continued growth of messaging apps, some say Telegram's business portfolio is still dependent upon a certain service. What do think about a possibility that Telegram may be expanded into social networking service (SNS) tool?
A: "Current trend is social media. Messaging applications have become the starting point for everyday activity for smartphone users. That's why so many such services are integrated with messaging solutions. That's why Telegram has been the only messaging app with 100 percent open free API. I believe that Telegram is leading this trend."
Q: Do you think Telegram is safe in database encryption?
A: "Security is our top priority. Tightened security is what makes Telegram solutions practically perfect. We started in 2013 by creating custom-built encrypted data protocol; this was the groundwork for our whole project. For us, since we have been secure since day one, it allows us to avoid sudden mistakes. We receive lots of feedback from people around the world. But nobody can manage to break our encryption. We offer $300,000 to anyone who manages to break our encryption, but the prize hasn't been claimed yet."
Q: The Islamic State (IS) was said to use Telegram as a means of communicating and distributing its propaganda material since Telegram introduced a "channel" feature, letting users broadcast messages to an unlimited number of subscribers. Telegram is quite similar to WhatsApp but is well-known for its high-level of encryption on broadcasting channels. Have you taken proper measures to deal with the issue?
A: "We've heard that IS is using Telegram services as their channels to broadcast and promote their propaganda. We have taken needed measures to take down all of these. We created teams to monitor groups and users help us shut down IS public channels by reporting their activity."
Q: How much do you know about Korean culture or K-Pop?
A: "I am well-aware that Korean youth are the trendsetters in Asia in terms of fashion, lifestyle and music. That's why I believe Telegram could help promote this through the use of our Channels to broadcast your own messages to the world. By using Telegram, Korean users can further promote Korean culture.
Seoul is a very advanced city and has great infrastructure. I was impressed by the scale of the operations and quality of food and again the fashion of Korean people. They are stylish. People are generally friendly and nice. I hope to visit again later this year for a longer stay. I would like to talk with more Korean users of Telegram services and learn what they would like to see on our platform."
Q: The legal wrangling over a federal court order requiring iPhone maker Apple to help law enforcement break into an iPhone is intensifying. Do you think Apple will be cooperative with the U.S. Justice Department to offer a unique encryption key?
A: "I support Tim Cook's position. There's a real risk that if your iPhone gets stolen, without encryption you could be blackmailed, for example. If Apple builds tools to unlock encryption, I think that's too dangerous. Apple is defending privacy and security for millions of people using iPhones. I know the situation could be the same for Samsung."
Q: What are the benefits of small government, as you are a strong supporter of free markets?
A: "I am a big supporter of the free market. Technology development is very fast. It's important to allow individuals and businesses within the economy to self-regulate as much as possible. Let them quickly adopt to the evolving society. Traditionally, small companies have been more successful in quickly adopting to the change in consumer needs.
Governments ultimately should be the fair judge in any possible disputes between businesses, and that should be their No. 1 role in society."
