How do Russians use social networks?

Publication date: 15 July 2019

In the first half of 2019, social network penetration in Russia was at 49%, a research conducted by Globlee platform showed. 

• 2018 data: The most popular social networks

Russia now has 70 million active users, and the majority of them access their accounts from mobile devices. The most popular social media platforms (including messengers) in Russia are YouTube, VKontakte, and WhatsApp. VKontakte is more popular than Facebook among 83% of users.

• Russians spend on average 2 hours 16 minutes on social networks daily. It is 12 minutes more than the average time spent by Americans.
• 99% of Russian internet users visit social networks or messengers at least once a month.
• 14% of Russians use social networks in their work.

Instagram is the most popular foreign social network in Russia with 37 million Russian registered users.

LinkedIn has a relatively low penetration rate in Russia (7.6 million users or 6.6% of the population aged 18 years and over) that is partially due to the blocking of the service in Russia.

11% of Russians over 13 years old are registered on Facebook (compared to 76% of Americans). 1.7% of Russian users are registered on Twitter (17% of users in the U.S.).

From January 2018 to January 2019, the number of active social media users in Russia grew by 2 million that is a 3.3% increase. In the U.S., this number remained unchanged over the same period of time.

3.5 billion people use social networks worldwide. 288 million new accounts were registered over the last 12 months that resulted in a growth of the social media penetration rate to 45%.

Google is testing Shoelace

• It is worth reading: New social network for women

Google is running a test of Shoelace, a new social network that connects people who share common interests and activities. Shoelace is available on iOS and Android but only for New Yorkers who have an invite code.

In SHoelace, you can organize your own event or tell people about your plans to visit a public event and invite anyone else to join. Shoelace will recommend daily activities to its users basing on information about their interests. 

Odnoklassniki introduces Ad accounts

• Previously, Odnoklassniki updated mobile app

Odnoklassniki now has its own Advertising account for small and medium-sized businesses as well as ordinary users.

Previously, users could advertise on Odnoklassniki only via myTarget advertising platform, which, as Odnoklassniki itself, belongs to Mail.ru Group. With Ad accounts, advertising is expected to become more affordable partly due to lower costs: the minimum cost of advertising via myTarget is 3,600 RUB compared to Ad account’s minimum of 400 RUB.

Users should understand myTarget’s advanced settings to place ads via the platform, while Ad account is designed for users with little experience in social media promotion, representatives of Odnoklassniki point out.

The system will automatically suggest bids and optimize expenses so as to get the best result. Audience can be targeted by age, gender, interests, income, and location.