When I spoke to the group of Russian college students in Milwaukee recently, I got a small glimpse into what social media is like in that country. What I found is that it is not so different than in the US, but is still in a more nascent, emerging state.
For example, instead of Facebook, Russians have Vkontatke (translated it means "In Contact"). Though you may have never heard of it, the site is the leading social network in the Russian speaking world with nearly 85 million registered users (that's right, 85 million!).
If you visit my profile there, you will see it resembles Facebook in a pre-2006 era. There are no fan pages, the Wall is hidden further down the profile page and it seems quite benign compared to what we are used to with Facebook.
You might say, "What Facebook was, Vkontakte is." I say, "What Facebook is, Vkontakte will become."
How do I know? Three words - Digital Sky Technologies, or DST for short.
To quote from their website, "DST is a leading global Internet holding company that originated in the Russian speaking world. We estimate that our companies comprise well over 70% of all pageviews in the Russian speaking Internet, targeting a potential audience of over 300 million people. Our companies hold the #1 and often also the #2 and #3 positions in all CIS states, including Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia."
Vkontakte is just one of the Russian companies DST has invested in. Another is Mail.ru, which is a rival to Yahoo!. The company's investment portfolio doesn't stop at the border either. They have invested heavily in some of the web's largest online entities including Facebook, Groupon, social game developer Zynga and the ever venerable ICQ. (Though we abandoned ICQ long ago, it is the leading instant messaging application in Russia.)
Russia also has its own version of Google, called Yandex. In a recent query of my name, I found that the search engine returned my Twitter account, this blog, my Plurk profile and a YouTube video, which provided evidence that is using the same universal or blended search technology that US-based engines are. (Russia also has a version of Youtube, interestingly called RuTube.)
According to the students, social media engagement is still largely on a personal level (most of Vkontakte's users are high school and university students). However, there are signs that the site is beginning to be used in a business context. For example, recruiters are using the site to post job listings. Advertising is offered as well. And, though few and far between at this point, some businesses are beginning to set up profiles there.
So, you have a fast-growing Facebook clone, a Russian-based investment company that is putting money into the largest social network sites on the planet, its own versions of major search portals, and an economy that continues its march toward a version of capitalism.
That spells opportunity to me and I plan to keep a sharp watch on the growth of social media for business within the country.
After reading your post I checked out Vkontakte, and even created myself an account, just for fun, and I can say you are perfectly right. Some time passed since you posted this, and now Vkontakte resembles Facebook much more than you described
Posted by: resume writing | January 02, 2011 at 10:20 AM
I don't think it's ok that this Russian social network just copied and continues to copy Facebook's main features. They might easily get sued for this
Posted by: professional dissertation writers | January 09, 2011 at 10:44 AM