Import substitution of communication – Business – Kommersant

The social network “VKontakte” in 2022 for the first time entered the top ten largest generating global Internet traffic, according to Canadian Sandvine. Telegram strengthened its position in the messenger category, moving from eighth to third place. This is mainly due to the influx of a new audience due to the blocking of Western social networks in Russia, experts say.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the report of analysts of the Canadian Sandvine “2023 Global Internet Phenomena Report”dedicated to global Internet trends in 2022. It follows that the VKontakte social network (owned by the VK holding) for the first time entered the top 10 applications that generate global Internet traffic, ranking ninth in the “social applications” category and fourth in the “social mobile applications” category. Telegram ranked third in the messaging app category (up from eighth a year earlier) and sixth among browser apps in the messaging category.

Telegram didn’t answer “Kommersant”. VKontakte notes active audience growth (according to the results of the third quarter of 2022, the monthly number of social network users increased by 6.9% and amounted to 76.9 million), which increased due to the development of key products, which include videos, clips, messenger and video calling platform.

In general, the demand for video content in the world continues to grow, which is why most platforms embed and distribute professional and copyright videos in their applications, Sandvine notes.

According to the company, in 2022 apps built for watching video content (including TV and streaming services) generate 65.9% of global internet traffic, up 24% from the first half of 2021. The second place in the generation of Internet traffic is occupied by marketplace service – 5.83%, and on the third is game industry – 5.58%. Social media generate 5.26% of global Internet traffic and are in fourth place, and messaging apps ranked eighth with a share of 2.3%. The leaders in these areas are Facebook, Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist in the Russian Federation and banned), WhatsApp and Generic Messaging.

Representatives of telecom operators confirm the explosive growth of Telegram and VKontakte traffic in 2022. MegaFon told Kommersant that Telegram traffic had tripled compared to 2021, and VKontakte by 45%. Vimpelcom (Beeline’s brand) said that Telegram is the fastest growing service in their network, with over 70% year-on-year traffic growth on the messenger. According to Tele2, the traffic of Vkontakte increased 1.5 times, Telegram – 2.5 times, while the growth of application users amounted to more than 40%.

The operator explains such dynamics by the transition to the platform of those users who previously developed business on Instagram: “Telegram has turned, in fact, into a social superapp that performs not only informational (but also “b”) educational and entertainment functions”.

First of all, the growth in the traffic of VKontakte services in 2022 is associated with the departure of Western social networks, Denis Volkov, CEO of Epicstars, agrees, noting the activity of the site in promoting and pulling users away from TikTok. An interlocutor of Kommersant in the IT market says that the global traffic of VKontakte became noticeable precisely because of the blocking of foreign social networks in Russia: “Traffic on them has decreased, it is simply inconvenient for many to use VPN.” The source of Kommersant connects the assumption with the same factor that the result cannot be repeated: “Most of the former users of foreign social networks and instant messengers who wanted to switch to these services have already done so.”

Vadim Krasnikov