Do you know who is the most successful businessman in Russia? You will probably immediately name such surnames as Prokhorov, Abramovich, Usmanov, Fridman and others. The success story of businessmen of the "old school" dates back to the 80-90s. The chronology of making billions in these people is the same and is known to all. Now the 21st century is the time of new discoveries and the frenzied development of the IT industry. Some of them have gloriously succeeded and become successful millionaires at a fairly young age. Your attention is presented to the list of "The most successful businessmen in Russia under 40". Of course, the leader of this sphere is Pavel Durov, but there are several more people who managed to put together their multi-million dollar fortune up to 40 years. This article is a story about how to become successful businessmen in Runet.
Pavel Durov: 31 years old, founder and owner of the popular Telegram messenger. Fortune - 1 billion dollars
In 2014, the number of users of the unique Telegram messenger totaled about 35 million people, and a year later there were more than 60 million (active monthly statistics). The trend of registering new users has continued to this day. In May 2015, Pavel Durov announced that 220 thousand new users are connected to the Telegram cross-platform application every day. If we evaluate the scale of development of this project, then today the number of users should exceed 100 million people. The uniqueness and popularity of this messenger is immediately determined by the fact that the application itself is free and available for instant download and use. Also, Telegram’s exclusive feature is its confidentiality - all users of this social network can be sure that their correspondence will always be private and inaccessible for interception.
Durov's unprecedented success after the launch of the VKontakte social network
Pavel Durov is a truly successful businessman and entrepreneur. The source of his status and popularity originates in the VKontakte social network, which he launched in 2006. This project has gained incredible popularity among the Russian-speaking population. This startup has begun to rapidly gain in mass. Having hooked every resident of the post-Soviet space into his social network, Pavel Durov very soon became a major millionaire, and the estimated value of VK exceeded $ 1.5 billion. For several years, Durov bought up shares on VKontakte. Pavel earned millions of dollars from this. In December 2014, Durov sold his last own 12% stake and ceased to be the owner of the most popular social network in Runet.
State of Pavel Durov
Little is known about Paul’s current life, because the billionaire does not like interviews and the press. In his Instagram we can see photos from New York, then from San Francisco. Durov also often visits European capitals. It is known that Paul is a true lover of beautiful nature. The young Russian billionaire often visits the Finnish lakes, has a rest in Karelia and from time to time goes skiing in Switzerland.
To date, the fortune of Pavel Durov totals $ 1 billion. He is the most successful young businessman in Russia. Paul himself has repeatedly stated that the estimated cost of Telegram varies from 3 to 4 billion dollars. He made these assessments based on what proposals he had received regarding the redemption of the Telegram messenger.
Ivan Tavrin: 39 years old, owner of UTV Holding (USM Holdings). Fortune - $ 400 million
In 1996, while still a student in the law faculty of MGIMO, Ivan Tavrin together with his friend founded the advertising agency Construct. In 2000, the agency’s annual profit exceeded $ 10 million. In 2001, he founded a new company called "Regional Media Group".
The scope of the RMG was still the same - the sale of media assets. In 2005, eight regional television stations operated under the auspices of the RMG. Tavrin’s fortune at that time already totaled tens of millions of dollars, but a successful businessman went further. In 2010, Ivan Tavrin established the Media-1 holding, which was created to merge assets with AF Media Holding (which included well-known television channels such as Muz-TV and 7TV), owned by Alisher Usmanov. Subsequently, the combined company became known as UTV Holding. Thanks to this integration, Ivan Tavrin received a 50% stake in UTV Holding.
To date, the fortune of Ivan Tavrin totals about 400 million dollars. In addition to owning shares of UTV Holding, a successful businessman is a member of the board of directors of Kommersant, and also holds the post of CEO of Megafon.
The Voinov brothers - Semyon and Efim, 33 years old: the founders of Zeptolab. Condition - $ 250 million each
Successful modern Russian businessmen are even those who make mobile games. Such representatives are the Voinov brothers - the creators and developers of the popular Cut The Rope mobile phone game. In 2015, the game reached a new promising level - the Indian company Nazara Games bought a franchise from Zeptolab. The prospect of this transaction is designed to capture the Indian subcontinent.
Mobile game Cut The Rope was released in 2010 and over 5 years of its existence has grown its audience of 750 million users. Along with this, Semyon and Yefim Voinovs became large millionaires. The popularity of the game Cut The Rope is so great that Om Nom became the main character closely on the screen of his mobile device - he dedicated a whole series, and in 2016 a whole cartoon about Am Nom was released.
The Voinov brothers are truly successful businessmen in Russia. They made their fortunes by creating exciting games for mobile devices. The success story of Yefim and Seeds is really surprising.
Little is known about the brothers' personal lives. Warriors do not like to give interviews and remain in the shadow of television cameras and the press.
Petr Kutis: 38 years old, founder of OneTwoTrip. Fortune - 130 million dollars
Successful Russian businessmen also excelled in the airline ticket market. One such representative is Peter Kutis, the founder of OneTwoTrip. In 2014, airline ticket sales (including hotel and hotel reservations) worldwide totaled $ 11.2 billion. The indicator is very impressive, however, analytical experts predict that the market will grow further and increase by 20-25% every year.
Experts believe that Kutis’s fortune totals about 130 million dollars, but the businessman himself does not cover and comment on his financial affairs. It is known that in OneTwoTrip in 2012, $ 25 million was invested by companies such as Phenomen Ventures ($ 9 million) and Atomico ($ 9 million. By the way, Atomico belongs to the co-founder of Skype - Niklas Zennstrem. Also published in the newspaper Kommersant information that funds were invested in OneTwoTrip from Goldman Sachs Bank ($ 8 million) and from the Vostok New Ventures Fund ($ 4 million) in 2015. At the same time, successful businessman Peter Kutis refuses to comment and reveal all the secrets of the transactions .
Alexander Agapitov: 31 years old, founder of Xsolla and Slemma. Fortune - 125 million dollars
Not all successful Russian businessmen were excellent students in educational institutions. A clear example is Alexander Agapitov, who was expelled from the institute for low attendance. Alexander at some point stopped pairing because he was engaged in his own work - he wrote a unique algorithm for analytics on the sites of bookmakers. Its software product was so successful that it predicted the outcome of sports events with 80% probability. Soon Agapitov launched his own service for paying for games over the Internet. The first development of the future millionaire was not doomed to major success, however, new ideas and developments were born with it. After some time, the improved product began to gain success, and soon the service developed to the company Xsolla, whose headquarters is located in California. Based on Xsolla software, more than 700 payment systems operate worldwide. The estimated value of the company varies from 1 to 1.5 billion dollars.
Conclusion
The stories of successful businessmen always surprise the masses. All these people differ from ordinary mortals in their strong-willed spirit and faith in their work. The new generation of businessmen is inversely different from the representatives of the old school. Successful modern businessmen are primarily people of the future. After all, all of them are somehow connected with the media space, the IT industry and the Internet, and all these areas are our future.