According to comScore data, Russians are the most avid social media junkies in the world. At 9.8 hours per month, they spend more than twice as much time on social media networks than the global average. Part of this can be explained by the relatively low Internet penetration in the country, which means that the existing user base is skewed towards the technological elite who are intense users of all IT products and services, not just social media. Another part can be explained by the ease of access to illegal music and movies via Russian social media sites. And yet further explanation could be due to Russians’ disillusionment by their State-controlled and State-friendly broadcast media, as further detailed in a recent article on Radio Free Europe. From a commercial perspective — given how central such sites are to Russian Internet users — it’s important for online sellers to develop an understanding of the major social networks and their dynamics. This post will focus on “social” social networks as opposed to those more oriented towards business networking. Oligarch Domination of Russian Social Media Extends Globally While we’re laying out the social media landscape and discussing the pluses and minuses of the different players, one thing to bear in mind is that the ultimate control of many of them rests with the oligarch Alisher Usmanov. He is the main financial backer of Digital Sky Technologies, which owns a big share of vKontakte, the majority of Mail.ru (Odnoklassniki and MoiMir) and significant minority interests in US-based Facebook and Twitter. AND, surprise-surprise, LiveJournal was bought in 2007 by SUP Media, a Russian company jointly controlled by Alexander Mamut and… Alisher Usmanov. The global tentacles reach out to Groupon, Spotify and Zynga as well. To learn more about how 2BG Social Media Agency can help your business grow in Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe contact Roman C. via email: RomanCee2BG@gmail or call me 646-772-3908
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:06:34 +0000