Forecast of Facebook users number in Russia 2018-2027

Facebook is expected to increase its Russian user base in the coming years, to reach 68.38 million users by 2027. This would represent an increase of 1.22 million users compared to the previous year. Moreover, its penetration rate is projected to reach 47.32 percent by 2027.

 Users demography

Over 30 percent of Facebook's audience in Russia was aged between 25 and 34 years, as of February 2022. Of them, about 18 percent were female users. Similar dynamics can be observed among Facebook Messenger users. That is, the named social media messenger was also considerably more popular among 35-year-olds. The share of female users prevailed that of male users for Facebook Messenger as well.

 VKontakte: Russia’s answer to Facebook

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Meta platform Facebook was banned in Russia on the grounds of extremism. Although Facebook can still be accessed through a VPN, the company will still face strong competition from its look-a-like VKontakte, commonly referred to as VK. VKontakte primarily services the Russian market with a social network that has a very strong resemblance to Facebook both in terms of function and look-and-feel. VK has undergone significant growth over the past four years, with  their user base rising from 43.9 million users in March 2016 to 67 million users in December 2021. VK’s presence is much smaller outside of Russia, however, with a market share of just 0.06 percent in the United Kingdom.