In Russia, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faces stiff competition for the role of number one news-making internet wunderkind. According to Bloomberg his name is Pavel Durov.
Durov, 27, is the founder and CEO of VKontakte (“In
Contact”), a Russian social network most easily described as a Facebook clone.
Started in 2006, VKontakte has closely mimicked the American trendsetter in
terms of design and functionality. With a natively Russian-language interface
and a marked disregard for copyright laws -- users can freely share music and
movies -- VKontakte has won a large following among users younger and less
sophisticated than those of Russian Facebook. As of April, it had 16.2 million
Russian users every day, compared with Facebook's 2.3 million, according to
research firm TNS.
Durov's star seems mystically linked to Zuckerberg's. The
most important business deals of their lives both took place this month. On May
28, just days after Facebook's IPO, Durov won the power to vote the shares of
VKontakte's biggest investor, the Mail.ru Group, effectively giving him full
voting control of the company. The arrangement is very similar to what
Zuckerberg had with Facebook's Russian investor, Digital Sky Technologies…
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