Yuri Milner Quotes

Russia, Entrepreneur
November 11, 1961

Yuri Borisovich Bentsionovich Milner (Russian: Ю́рий Бори́сович Бенцио́нович Ми́льнер; born 11 November 1961) is an Israeli-Russian entrepreneur, venture capitalist and physicist. Milner is Russia's most influential tech investor as the founder of investment firms Digital Sky Technologies (DST) now called Mail.ru Group and DST Global. Through DST Global, Milner is an investor in Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, Flipkart, Spotify, Zocdoc, Groupon, JD.com, Xiaomi, OlaCabs, Alibaba, AirBnB, WhatsApp, NuBank, Wish and many others.

Also known as Physicist, Businessman

It's not about revenues: The fundamental economics in digital business is scale and margins. The top line has become the bottom line.

Yuri Milner
You know among people who kind of travel a lot and have exposure to the United States and some other countries, they do have accounts, but you know, Russia is not exactly the place with multiple language skills so local networks kind of have an edge.

Yuri Milner
- People
- Travel
- Language

The problem is that modern fundamental physics is so far from you and me. The mathematics has become so much more complicated that you need at least 10 years to understand it. Fundamental physics has advanced so far from the understanding of most people that there is really a big disconnect.

Yuri Milner
The company that creates one global social graph will be very important going forward. It will be Facebook, with maybe 2-3 local social networks able to sustain competition long term.

Yuri Milner
The largest newspaper in the United States is only reaching 1 percent of population. We are kind of assuming that 'Wall Street Journal,' 'USA Today,' and other newspapers are very important. Yes, they're extremely important, but only to 1 percent of the population on a daily basis.

Yuri Milner
- Important
- Today
- Wall
Fundamental physics is like an art more or less. It's completely non-practical, and you can't use it for anything. But it's about the universe and how the world came into being. It's very remote from your daily life and mine, and yet it defines us as human beings.

Yuri Milner
- Life
- World
- Art
I'm trying to learn from various corners of the world.

Yuri Milner
- World
- Trying
- Learn
You have to travel globally today to know what's going on and maintain an edge.

Yuri Milner
- Today
- Travel
- Edge

Facebook is at the forefront. It's the company that can fundamentally change the way information is being exchanged and processed. It can be the basis for artificial intelligence to develop over time.

Yuri Milner
- Time
- Change
- Intelligence
Facebook is a platform inside a platform.

Yuri Milner
- Inside
- Facebook
- Platform
I have invested in four social networks. More than any other.

Yuri Milner
- More
- Social
- Four
My background is in theoretical physics, and it's something very close to my heart.

Yuri Milner
- Heart
- Something
- Physics
I must analyze, from what I do now, what will be the impact two or three or five years in the future. What is the statement I want to make?

Yuri Milner
- Future
- Three
- Impact
One of the companies that we've invested in is called Facebook. In only two years, between 2009 and 2011, the information exchanged between people increased 28 times. And that cannot be explained by new people joining Facebook.

Yuri Milner
- People
- Years
- Information

We monitor close to 50 companies globally that can be potential investment opportunities. I'd like to see DST as a significant global investment company in the Internet arena.

Yuri Milner
- Internet
- Opportunities