The outgoing year was a turning point for domestic IT companies – the blocking of foreign social networks and the withdrawal of popular services from the market led to an increase in the audience of domestic platforms, as well as attempts by Russian developers to create analogues. Vladimir Zykov, director of the Professional Association of Users of Social Networks and Messengers (APPSIM), said this in a conversation with socialbites.ca about the 2022 results.
The IT specialist notes that VKontakte, Telegram and Odnoklassniki recorded a record increase in the number of users this year and predicts that their popularity will increase next year. He expects Russian companies to launch new functions and new services.
“Brave decisions will help Russian social networks and messengers win,” says Vladimir Zykov.
He also noted the new Looky social network, developed by a Russian team led by Yegor Yakovlev, the founder of Tvigle and START streaming services, creator of the Russian Internet Forum (RIF), and launched in early December.
“The Looky team has a professional approach, serious budgets and big plans to win the audience,” the source said.
Zykov also acknowledges that Russian sites have started to actively support bloggers by launching additional earning opportunities this year.
According to him, such steps caused a surge of interest from bloggers, who closed the possibility of earning a day before YouTube.
The specialist calls the process of creating a reliable and high-quality IT infrastructure necessary for the country and is confident that developers should join forces and create a common product when creating analogues.
“But for development, the domestic market needs help with venture investments. It is necessary to finance start-ups, support young companies in their formation and initiate special programs. Very high-level Russian developers need to provide a comfortable environment for IT professionals,” stresses the director of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers.
As for the rest, the specialist concludes that domestic companies have a lot to succeed in development: a large number of potential users and empty niches after some players leave the Russian market.
According to the mobile operator Yota, the monthly volume of traffic to Russian services has almost doubled since the beginning of 2022. The number of users of Russian social networks and instant messengers increased by 20%.