Russian bloggers have increased revenues on banned social networks

Russian major bloggers have multiplied their income from banned social networks despite their blocking. In Instagram alone (owned by Meta, an organization recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), advertising revenue increased by almost 20% to 130 million rubles, the Association of Bloggers and Agencies told Izvestia.

In general, advertisers spent on advertising in Instagram, X (former Twitter), Facebook (owned by the recognized extremist company Meta, its activities are banned in the Russian Federation) in the first 11 months of 2024 eight times more than a year earlier - 4.7 billion rubles.

"The main revenue growth is due to an increase in the cost of placements rather than an influx of new advertisers. Within the Meta structure, the most important player in the advertising market is Instagram, as it is this platform that bloggers are interested in due to its functionality and algorithms - the recommendation feed allows short clips to "viralize". It is the Reels format that is now the most favorite not only as regular content, but also for advertising integrations", - explained in ABA.

Yaroslav Meshalkin, managing partner of Heads'made digital communications agency, noted that bloggers in banned networks still have the largest audience, as they have not managed to massively transfer it to legal media platforms.

"At the same time, the process of audience "transfusion" continues, and over time the situation will at least equalize. I see Telegram as the most promising platform in 2025, where there is a significant growth in both marketing through opinion leaders and classical advertising promotion," he said.

According to him, the development of mini-application functionality and video formats, which Pavel Durov's team is clearly betting on, will open up a lot of additional opportunities for advertisers.

Read more in Izvestia's exclusive article:

Gilded Hand: Bloggers have increased their income in banned social networks