FreshNetworks Blog

Earlier this year we reported on how Russia is the fourth largest social networking market in Europe. Data from TNS showed that use of social media and social networking in Russia is widespread, making it the fourth largest market in Europe for social networking behind the UK, Germany and France. In part this position is driven by strong local social networking sites, principally Odnoklassniki (Одноклассники), which reports some 30 million registered users, and VKontakte (В контакте) with some 28 million registered users.

These numbers are truly impressive and perhaps the rate of growth in membership of social networking sites in Russia is even more so. But recent research from comScore shows that Russians are the most engaged users of social media in the world.

The research showed that in May this year, 1.1 billion people went online worldwide, and 75% of these visited social networks and online communities. In fact, the typical user of the internet spent 3.7 hours on such sites in May. But users from Russia led the way with the typical internet user in that country spending a total of 6.6 hours ever month on these social media sites. Brazil was second with an average of 6.3 hours per user and Canada was third with 5.6 hours per typical user. These numbers compare with 4.6 hours spent by the typical UK internet user on social networks. And a typical 4.2 hours for people in the US.

By this simple measure, the Russian internet audience appears to be perhaps the most engaged in the world in social networking and online communities. This highlights the danger of focusing on English-language-centric developments in online communities, social media tools and social networks. In Russia, two local sites each reach more than 40% of the entire Internet population in the country. Facebook, by contrast, reaches only 2% of the Russian internet audience.

Some of the most interesting developments in the use of social networks and online communities are happening where the users are most engaged and where the user bases are growing most rapidly. This is more likely to be in the markets where the audience and access is developing quickly. Perhaps we should all look to Russia and Brazil more when we want to know what comes next.

Some more reading

• comScore: Russians Spend More Time On Social Networks Than The Rest Of World (uk.techcrunch.com)
• Top 20 Countries for SocNet Engagement (marketingvox.com)
• Useful chart – the top 20 countries for social media engagement (thisisherd.com)
• Russia has most active social networks? comScore on social media usage globally (nettiehartsock.com)

We’ve posted in the past about the use of social media in Russia, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev launched a video blog. But data from TNS shows that use of social media and social networking in the country is widespread, making it the fourth largest market in Europe for social networking behind the UK, Germany and France. The January Web Index for TNS shows that two leading social networks in Russia are witnessing the kind of acceleration in growth that we have seen in other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

One of the main social networks in Russia, Odnoklassniki (Одноклассники) is reporting 30 million registered users. The site, which (as the name suggests) connects classmates is used in both Russia and the Ukraine and attracts 8 million visitors each day. VKontakte (В контакте) is Odnoklassniki’s biggest competitor with a reported 28 million registered users and 1.4 billion page views each day and 13.09 million visitors each month.

These statistics are impressive and firmly place Russia as the fourth biggest market in Europe for social networking. The total number of users of both of these sites is remarkable given that in 2008, Russia’s overall internet population was reported to be just 33 million people. It is true that internet access is increasing rapidly in Russia, and the growth of social networks is accompanying this. When people go online for the first time they appear to be joining and using social networks almost immediately.

This behaviour teaches us much about innovation in online uses. Many people talk about Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 and the progression there has been from one to the other. For those regions with the fastest growth in internet access, such distinctions become less useful. For these newly connected individuals, they only know one version of the Web. One that includes social networks, social media and online communities. For them it’s less that the internet has changed and they can now do new things, but more that they’ve always been able to connect, share, discuss and meet people online. It’s in these markets that I would expect to see some of the biggest innovations in online use, and the Russian social networking market is certainly one to watch.

Subscribe to updates from the FreshNetworks Blog

Some more reading

• Russian Social Network Comes Up with a Very Creative Approach to Competition (profy.com)
• International Users Not Only Exist, They Are Also Willing to Pay (profy.com)
• Odnoklassniki.ru Shows New Ways To Monetize Social Networks
• vkontakte.ru впервые обогнал odnoklassniki.ru по посещаемости
• Контакт с аудиторией