According to Durov, WeChat became the leader in the messenger market in the early 2010s due to real competitive struggles with other services, including international ones like WhatsApp, which operated without restrictions at that time. Only after WeChat gained a wide audience did the government begin to integrate its services into this messenger.
Durov also draws parallels with the situation in other countries, such as South Korea and Japan, where the messengers KakaoTalk and LINE took leading positions. In his opinion, there was no scenario there where competitors were first banned and then a winner was declared.
From this, Durov derives the key point of his statement: attempts by the authorities to impose a single service on the population have never led to success, and the elimination of competition negatively affects the quality of life and the safety of communication. He believes that competition is the driving force of progress, and its absence will not improve the situation.
This statement comes against the backdrop of new restrictions for Telegram in Russia. Media reports indicate that starting from February 10, 2026, the authorities began to "systematically restrict" the operation of the messenger, while the Kremlin refers to Max as the "national messenger" and "an accessible alternative." Earlier, Durov also mentioned that a similar attempt in Iran was unsuccessful, as users continued to use Telegram, circumventing the bans.
