Social Networking and the #NewRussianYouth

KateAlthaus MA RUES Candidate--UNC Chapel Hill

2 hours ago

statistics

Source: www.BCG.com, cyber.law.harvard.edu

1 in 6 Russians goes online daily

Most involved social networkers

in the world, with a national average

of 6.6 hours a month spent on SNS

At 135 million users, is the largest social networking site in Russia

Despite Facebook’s social networking monopoly across most of the world, only about 5 million Russians are active account holders

3rd most visited RuNet website 35th most visited site globally

with 45 million registered accounts and 10 million daily visitors,

Russia’s 2nd most frequented

social networking site

Reunion network for classmates, old friends

5th most visited RuNet website

Same design and premise as

Facebook

Founded September 2006

bloggingMost frequent

online activity for 14-17 year olds

Over 5 million blogs registered on RuNetYoutube most

frequently linked

Public Affairs blogs most popular by far—covering issues of news, politics, opposition, activism, and community organizations

At short of 700,00 users, twitter is one of Russia’s least frequented social media sites

However, membership is growing at exponential rates similar to that of Facebook

Currently most frequented by politicians, journalists, organizations, and businesses

Recently, both President Medvedev and the Kremlin created Twitters in English (as well as

Russian), potentially signaling a new interest in gaining approval through social media within the government

significance: revolution

instigator?

Web users extremely polarized because of prices, access: 40% with regular internet usage

…but 60% with relatively no interaction.

Virtually the only media space free of sensors, regulations, rules

47% of Russians now trust the internet over any other source of

media for accurate and timely information

A Twitter user reported the January 24Moscow airport bombing 20 minutes before any other media outlet

torrents.ru is the worlds most popular media piracy site

preference for RuNet networking sites over .coms is representative of

the extremely low levels of English proficiency within

Russia.