"At the moment, we are the No. 1 platform in terms of audience size"
In an environment where user attention is increasingly scattered between formats, the VK Video platform has relied on personalized recommendations, using a unique integration with the VKontakte social network to take into account the interests, behavior and environment of the user. Nikolay Duksin, Vice President for Music and Video Services at VK, told Izvestia about this in an exclusive interview at the SPIEF. He also noted the possibility of transferring bloggers from the short video format to a full-fledged format, spoke about the work of the children's regime, as well as what helped the platform gain market leadership.
"A person is really as diverse as possible in content consumption"
— What role does video play in VK strategy? Can we say that VK is turning into a full-fledged video platform comparable to YouTube?
— You know, we generally do not look at the market as a place where there is competition. This is not exactly the right approach. We have our own way, each product has its own way. If we talk about VK Video, it is one of the most key products of the holding. This is a product that shows a lot of growth — today it is more than 70 million users who consume video content, and they consume a lot of time. For us, the key KPI is not only the size of the audience, but also how much time this audience spends on the site, how much they actually watch. We have already reached phenomenal numbers. You know that VK Videos are available in different media: in a mobile application, on a smart TV, on the web, and inside social networks.
Speaking specifically about smart TV, the average time per user already exceeds 230 minutes per day, which means that users watch almost four hours.
— How do you assess the chances of the platform in the coming years not only to compete with YouTube, but also to take an equal place among global video platforms?
— At the moment, we are the No. 1 platform in terms of daily audience and video viewing in the country. And what is pleasing to us is that we continue to grow, that is, we have not reached some kind of peak. If we take some retrospective data, then the pattern of watching video content in digital does not correspond to what it was before.
Now we see how people's consumption is changing in principle, how much, for example, the short, vertical format is moving forward. Previously, blogger content used to work mainly, which was very simple, but now TV series and films are of great interest in digital.
A person is really as diverse as possible in the consumption of their content, and the same user is interested at the same time in movies, TV series, recipes for cooking a dish, and a review of a trip, for example, to Suzdal. We can see from the user profiles that the palette is so different that it is simply incorrect to draw analogies with previous periods. It is necessary to meet all the needs of the audience.
"It was important for us to give a clear signal to the author how he would make money"
— How will VK Video's monetization continue to develop? What exclusive offers are you preparing for bloggers?
— At the end of last year, we already launched an updated monetization program that allows users to earn money just like the platforms you mentioned. It was important for us to give a clear signal to the author how he would make money. Because you know that there are different programs in the world, complex formulas "we'll calculate for you here." It doesn't really contribute to the development of the authors. Our goal is to involve as many non—professional people as possible so that they can try, try, and really get some kind of reward for it.
We have made a very simple formula: these are specific numbers per thousand views. And at the moment, the advertising model that unscrews the ad stream before showing the video, in turn, allows just this money, as we say, to return with the audience. And what is important, at the moment we have done another very cool thing — a very simple threshold for entering the program.
Now, in order to become a professional author who receives money for monetization, it is enough to have 5,000 subscribers in your channel, comply with copyright, and that's it. Click the "Join the program" button and start making money from it, if your content is actually being watched. And about 80 thousand authors have already joined the program and are receiving payments. I can say that a lot of authors receive payments comparable to the so-called golden days, when they earned astronomical money on various international services.
— How has the introduction of short video formats affected user engagement?
— There is a very important point here, which must be considered from two sides. There is an author's side, there is a user's side. If we talk about copyright, then, of course, the threshold for entry into the production of vertical video is very simple. You don't need any equipment or anything. A phone is enough to take down content, which creates a very wide funnel for young authors. They strive to switch to a horizontal format anyway, so we are creating a new recommendation system that will allow young authors to quickly pull up and bring them to a wide audience.
A person has different time slots during the day that they are willing to spend on the Internet. In the evening, for example, it can be 40-50 minutes, and, for example, during the day he can have 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 10 minutes, because he is busy with business, working, and so on. And at this point, of course, vertical video is a priority format for him.
In order to build a link between large horizontal videos and vertical ones, we are just implementing a special recommendation system. You can stumble upon a short video clip, see an interesting fragment from some show or blogger's content, click "go to full release" and get to exactly this second in the timecode, where it is cut. And it's actually super convenient, and it works very well for authors.
"We are working to make the environment for the author really as favorable as possible"
— What will VK be different from other platforms in a couple of years? How will you be unique?
— We are still very deeply integrated with the social network. And this is a huge plus for us, because the recommendation system we are working on is based on the tastes and preferences of the user. The sources of information that we use to improve our monetization system are much more diverse than just watching videos. It is thanks to this that we can offer the user something special and unique.
Any content service today, whether it's a music service or a video service, is still based on a recommendation system. VK Video uploads more than 350,000 pieces of content to users every day. This is in addition to the content that Vitrina itself is still professionally working with. This is a huge volume, and unless there is a proper recommendation system, it will be impossible to cover it. It is the segment for the development of the service.
In this sense, we are in a unique technological situation because we can use much more information to enrich our profile. It's a lot of work that we rely on.
— What are the main changes awaiting the platform in 2025-2026? How will the new features affect the use of VK in everyday life?
— Of course, the most important thing, as I said earlier, is the recommendation system. This is a very big bet, and hundreds of people are working on it at the moment. This is an integration with a music service, which is also very important, because we want to build a music video script and a video script in music. After all, VK Music has over 40 million users, and VK Video has over 70 million. And mutual enrichment is a very good point of growth and a point of product improvement. Of course, this is a great content development. We try to attract as many authors as possible and pay great attention to professional authors. This includes interaction with TV channels, including producers of films and TV series, whom we also attract to the platform by creating pleasant conditions for them.
From regime stories: a full-fledged children's profile has now been opened, which allows you to watch children's content absolutely safely. We have created a very user-friendly interface, and we have attracted several neuropsychologists who help us fill out this section correctly. The most important thing for us is that it not only has an entertainment function, but also an educational one.
We want to create an application and an environment in which a young parent can watch some kind of entertaining humorous show, sports broadcast, or something else. And in order to somehow attract his child, he did not need to leave him. He will be able to switch the button to enter safe child mode, from which the child, by the way, will not be able to exit unless he enters the password. You can set up a filter for each age and watch it. This is a very important task for us.
— What helped the service overcome the mark of 6.6 million downloads?
— It is impossible to name one secret of success. Probably the key factor is, of course, a huge team that sincerely believes and wants to create a full–fledged, high-quality, globally competitive video service. And in this sense, for us it is the mobilization of all resources, of the entire holding company.
— What indicators do you want to achieve?
— We don't set clear targets for 100, 200, 300, 400, 600 million and so on. Rather, we want to achieve product metrics that actually translate into a lot of different metrics.
For example, there is a story related to the video download speed. We pay a lot of attention to this part of the work, because we conduct tests all over the country — in Yakutia, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Novosibirsk, Kaliningrad. And we try to make sure that, regardless of the speed and stability of the Internet signal, both mobile and wired, users always have, plus or minus, the same quality and download speed of the picture.
We are also working to ensure that the environment for the author really becomes as favorable as possible, so that the authors can become really super popular. We already have similar cases where authors who did not come from other platforms retain their popularity, when authors and projects that were born on the platform have already become federal projects, such as the Natal Chart.
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