Total number of active social media users in Russia 2015-2021

The total number of active social media users has been steadily growing year-on-year in Russia, except for 2017, when the audience dropped significantly in volume across the country. By January 2021, there were 99 million active users of social media platforms in Russia.  

Popular Social media platforms in Russia

    YouTube was the leading social media platform in the country with over an 85 percent penetration rate as of third quarter of 2019. Vkontakte, which is known as the Russian version of Facebook, provided a strong competition to the former in the region and accounted for over 38 million monthly users by February 2019 in Russia only. As for the messengers, WhatsApp dominated the market as of the year-end 2019, and in 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country contributed to the traffic growth of this platform even further.

Social media usage in Russia

    With a daily average of over two hours, Russians were the most active consumers of social media among European countries in 2019. The most frequently employed devices for connecting to social networks, especially among the young generation, were mobile appliances. In aggregate terms, the share of female users prevailed that of the male audience on most platforms, with an exception of Twitter and YouTube.