Every day, FaceApp is gaining more and more popularity on the Web. It is a full-fledged image editor with many tools and interesting features. With it, in just a few minutes, even from the most terrible photo you can make a real masterpiece. Its creator is Yaroslav Goncharov. Who is this mysterious millionaire and how did he manage to make his huge fortune? Let's get to know him better.
Carier start
Long before joining the Forbes rating as one of the richest people in the world, Yaroslav Goncharov was an ordinary programmer. He worked at Microsoft and worked on creating Windows Mobile. When the development of the platform began, Android and iOS had not yet been launched on the market, so he was convinced that their product would be the first operating system for mobile platforms. Enthusiasm was given by the feeling that the young Russian programmer is creating something that will change the world of innovative technologies, as Steve Jobs and his Apple company did before. However, the project was a failure. Windows Mobile has not received much demand. Therefore, after working for some time as a global giant, Yaroslav decides to return to Russia and settle in St. Petersburg.
But these years have not passed in vain. While working at Microsoft, the guy began to show interest in neural networks and artificial intelligence, which determined his future fate. Subsequently, he will be able to realize his interest in a business that will excite the whole of America.
The first steps in entrepreneurship
In Russia, Yaroslav Goncharov, together with Vasily Filippov and Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, founded the startup SPB Software. The small company in which he served as CEO was developing alternative home screens for mobile phones running Windows Mobile.
However, the project was a failure, because after the release of Android and iOS, Microsoft began to actively lose ground in the market of operating systems for mobile gadgets. Yaroslav decided to reorient to the OS from Google, after which things went more successfully. As a result, in 2011, the startup was sold to the Russian company Yandex for $ 38 million. How much of this amount went to Yaroslav remains a mystery, since he never spoke about it anywhere. But you can definitely be sure that the novice entrepreneur made a fortune on the deal, since he had the largest startup rights.
Biggest success
After the successful sale of the first startup, Yaroslav Goncharov decided not to stop there, despite the fact that he did not experience a shortage of money. In 2016, he founded his second company, FaceApp, under the name of which a photo editor for Android smartphones and tablets was released.
Despite the fact that it is very small - the staff totals only 12 people, the developed utility made a splash in the market. This is the first application of its kind in the world, which is based on artificial intelligence. Having set certain settings, the program is able to independently change the gender or impose an aging effect when you take a selfie. Today, FaceApp tops the download charts on the Apple Store and Google Play. However, along with success came problems. The application aroused interest from the American intelligence services, which began to check it for threats to state security.
How did events develop further?
The appearance of the first artificial intelligence application greatly alarmed the US government, so FBI checks fell on FaceApp. The scandal that erupted caused some concerns among the users themselves. They were interested in where the photos of faces go after saving. In addition, the fact that the utility had access to all the cameras of the device added cause for concern.
Goncharov was stunned by the flurry of criticism that fell upon him, because he always strove to work as transparently as possible. The company went into emergency mode for a whole week, because the phones were torn from calls. In an interview with reporters of the reputable Forbes magazine, he said that he was going to solve the problem of confidentiality by removing all links leading to user photos.
Future plans
Initially, the idea of creating FaceApp was to eventually turn it into a new social network. To continue to scale the project, the company had to completely change its privacy policy. Today it is very similar to the one that follows the social network Instagram.
Images are automatically deleted within 48 hours after they are published. This is because the photos are not used for commercial purposes. However, the problem is that the users of the application do not want to re-upload the photo. How to solve it is still unknown. Now when you open FaceApp, a system notification is displayed in which a person must provide consent to save data in the cloud service. No significant changes to the program code are expected.
Yaroslav himself does not see a particular problem, nor a threat to anyone's security. There are many different applications on the market that collect much more user confidential information. Therefore, he is convinced that the situation will settle down over time.
Conclusion
The story of Yaroslav Goncharov is the best example of the fact that an ordinary programmer from Russia can achieve great success. He managed to write an application that has already been installed by more than 100 million users. FaceApp is already priced at $ 90,000,000, but experts say this is far from the limit. Yaroslav constantly receives investment offers, but he does not want to attract outside capital, but retains 100% of the company’s share. How he will develop things further, one can only guess. But let's hope that the entrepreneur succeeds in realizing all his plans.
In the end, I would like to note that in fact in such applications there is nothing to worry about. On the contrary, it’s funny to look at yourself, your relatives and friends in old age, without waiting for her. Try to be positive with life, and then you will be fine.