Rutube increased the number of users by more than 50%

The Rutube video platform increased the number of users by 53.7%, Tele2 analysts reported. writes “Prime”.

The platform was in first place in terms of audience growth due to the “migration” of Russian bloggers from the American YouTube platform. At the same time, in terms of the number of users, it still occupies a 3% share, analysts say. “In second place in terms of audience growth is Twitch – plus 28.3%. The Telegram audience increased by 23% compared to March 2022,” Tele2 said.

For the VK company, the launch of the VK Video service became a growth driver this year – the increase in the number of service users was 19.8%. The audience of the main VK application grew by 9.1%. The social network is equal in popularity to YouTube in Russia; they each occupy a 15% share based on the results of the first nine months of 2023.

The domestic social network Odnoklassniki is equal in audience share to Meta-owned Facebook (recognized as extremist, banned in the Russian Federation) – 14% each. Telegram and TikTok each occupy 13%, Twitter (renamed X) – 6%. Instagram (owned by extremist Meta) and Twitter lost the most audiences – 51.1% and 19.4% respectively.

In mid-September, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications Anton Gorelkin said that blocking YouTube would do “more harm than good.” At the same time, the American platform “continues to remain hostile,” so it is worth developing domestic alternatives, the deputy specified.

Rutube continues to work to attract bloggers to the platform. In the summer of 2022, video hosting announced the launch of a program of financial support for domestic bloggers. YouTube used to share revenues from advertising, subscriptions, paid features, etc. with Russian video bloggers. But in March last year, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and subsequent sanctions against Russia, the platform first notified the suspension of advertising sales in Russia, and then announced that completely suspends all monetization opportunities for Russian authors.