Telegram now has 900 million monthly active users. At the beginning of 2021, there were about 500 million of them. Pavel Durov, the messenger’s founder, told the Financial Times about this.

He also said that Telegram is approaching profitability. According to him, this could happen next year, if not this year.

At the same time, Pavel Durov noted that the company “received an estimate of more than $30 billion” from potential investors, but ruled out selling the platform as it is exploring the possibility of a future IPO.

“The main reason we started monetizing is because we wanted to remain independent,” said Pavel Durov. “Generally speaking, we see the value of [the IPO] as a means of democratizing access to Telegram’s value.

According to two people with knowledge of the matter, Telegram will likely seek a U.S. listing as soon as the company becomes profitable and market conditions are favorable.

The messenger’s founder would not comment on a timeframe or possible IPO location, but said that Telegram has “explored several options.”

By the way, in February of this year, Ukraine’s intelligence service recognized that Telegram contains a number of threats to the security of our country.

Instead, Telegram denied the allegations against it. The company’s representative Remy Vaughn said that “Telegram is and always has been safe for Ukrainians and users around the world.”