Natural fence: the audience of Russian video services increased by 30 million over the year
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- Natural fence: the audience of Russian video services increased by 30 million over the year
The audience of Russian video services increased by more than 30 million over the year: VK Video increased by 4.3 million, to 72.2 million, VK Clips by 9.8 million, to 66.6 million, and Rutube's audience jumped by 17.9 million, to 58.3 million, the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) told Izvestia. According to experts, interest in domestic platforms has grown against the backdrop of YouTube's slowdown. Experts believe that in 2025 the interest of users to domestic platforms will continue to increase. This may be facilitated by the introduction of new features and improved user experience.
How domestic video services have grown their audience
Over the year, the average monthly audience of "VK Video" increased by 4.3 million, to 72.2 million, "VK Clips" - by 9.8 million, to 66.6 million, Rutube it jumped by 17.9 million, to 58.3 million. The video service Nuum began its work at the end of December 2023, during its operation the audience amounted to 5.2 million, according to data from the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (available at the disposal of "Izvestia"). Thus, the number of users of domestic video services increased by more than 30 million.
The association has no data for 2022 on "VK Video" and "VK Clips", the audience of Rutube was 17.2 million people.
YouTube indicators are gradually declining, but it is too early to talk about the final figures of the outflow, the ABA said, but the trend is becoming clearer: according to the data, the average daily reach of this video hosting in October decreased by 2.3% and amounted to 46.2 million people, when in January there were 54.2 million.
The ABA believes that the YouTube video hosting slowdown alone would not have led to a mass migration of users to domestic platforms. They followed bloggers who either changed or supplemented their list of platforms for posting author's content, the association explained.
Yaroslav Meshalkin, managing partner of Heads'made digital communications agency, believes that domestic platforms were able to take advantage of YouTube's slowdown and start working hard.
- 30 million is a good result, I think that next year it will at least double due to consistent changes in user habits, image campaigns, content development and technology," he said.
The growth of VK Video in 2024 is due to several factors - the emergence of new authors and the development of the monetization program, VK's press service told Izvestia.
- In the first 11 months of 2024, the number of authors creating original content on "VK Video" increased by 52%, subscriptions to their pages increased by 3.5 times. The average income of authors in the monetization program launched in September increased 2.5 times. The total number of content authors participating in the program on the platform reached 81 thousand. The maximum amount paid to the author for October under the new program exceeded 1 million rubles, - said in the press service of the company.
An important role was played by the product development of the service and the introduction of new technologies, they added. The "VK Video" application became available on Android smartphones and tablets, a new recommendation system was launched and a new content search system - there are new artificial intelligence algorithms for automatic speech recognition and subtitle synthesis in videos, shows, clips and other content.
As for "VK Clips", according to the press service, the number of published clips for the third quarter increased by 2.8 times, and the number of content creators - by 47%.
Among the reasons for the growth in the company emphasize the ability to combine clips into thematic playlists, thanks to which bloggers will be able to keep attention on new videos longer and increase views of previously published clips.
Nuum video service notes the increased interest of users in vertical content. Authors actively post videos in this format more often than in stream or horizontal videos. The company believes that this is due to the lower labor costs of editing and creating such videos. The monthly audience of the platform has grown 2.5 times since the beginning of 2024, the company told Izvestia.
"Izvestia" sent an inquiry to Rutube.
How video services will develop further
Today, many bloggers are looking for local alternatives due to restrictions on international platforms and YouTube, while VK Video and Nuum offer convenient conditions for monetization and promotion of content, which attracts both large and niche authors, says CEO of the creative agency "Closer" Tatiana Nikishina.
- The audience is especially active in following their favorite bloggers, which allows platforms to quickly build up their user bases," she said.
Thanks to vertical videos, integration with AI and creation of conditions for streaming, domestic platforms attract both young people and a wider audience, the expert emphasized. If the trend for high-quality and localized content continues, Russian platforms will be able to strengthen their position in the market, she added.
Georgiy Lapshakov, General Director of Influence Agency "Soil", also believes that despite the strong position of YouTube, the audience of "VK Video" will continue to grow.
- Many users are just beginning to familiarize themselves with the platform as an alternative to YouTube. People are gradually getting used to finding their content there," he noted.
According to State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin, next year the growth of Russian platforms may be from 5 to 15%, which is due to the introduction of new features and improved user experience on Russian platforms.
- Users continue to actively migrate to domestic platforms, this is due to their active development and the fact that security issues on the Web are now coming to the forefront. And it is our resources in matters of cybersecurity are definitely not in doubt - unlike their Western counterparts," the parliamentarian said.
Anton Nemkin believes that the platforms will be able to offer high-quality analytics, convenient tools for content creation and competitive conditions for monetization, so the Russian video content market will absolutely be able to seriously compete with its Western counterparts.
