Vadim Glushchenko, director of the Global IT Cooperation Competence Center, says that Russia can rightfully be considered the largest market for social networks and online platforms in the world.
“Almost eight in ten Russians use social media, one of the highest social media penetration rates in Central and Eastern Europe. “If the total number of users of domestic social networks in 2021 was around 70 million, in 2023 this figure increased to 101 million, that is, 70 percent of the Russian population,” he said.
Glushchenko noted that the quality of Russian social networks is improving.
“The quality of domestic social networks has become comparable and in some respects surpasses the quality of foreign analogues. This is the ease of the interface, the work of recommendation algorithms, the ease of use of services, the level of moderation, the work of technical support, etc. It is related to. “It is no secret that the trend of increasing the popularity and quality of domestic online platforms is noticeable, especially given the significant decrease in activity on pages and accounts on foreign social networks,” Glushchenko said.
According to him, the growth of the market was possible not only thanks to the efforts of IT companies, but also thanks to the support measures of the government.
“The main thing is not to stop on this path, because the more content writers shift to domestic platforms, the more users and advertisers there will be. In 2023, the number of domestic writers (content producers) increased to 63 million people (1.3% increase compared to 2022). The number of posts (or the volume of content created) continues to grow. Glushchenko stated that this figure will exceed 1.44 billion units in 2023.
Moreover, the director of the Global IT Cooperation Competence Center emphasized that 2023 shows that the Russian IT industry makes a valuable contribution to strengthening Russia’s technological sovereignty.
“As we see, foreign companies hoping to isolate our country in the internet field made a mistake and suffered losses,” Glushchenko said.
He added that research by the Association of Communications Agencies of Russia (ACAR) on the development potential of Russian online platforms and social networks should be conducted annually.
“It is important that such studies are carried out annually to monitor the effectiveness of companies and government measures. This is also beneficial for bloggers and advertisers; They will be able to learn about alternative platforms for publishing content or advertising,” concluded Glushchenko.
Previously AKAR named Russian platforms with the highest development potential. The results of the research showed that Rutube, VK, Telegram and Odnoklassniki have become the leaders of social networks in Russia.