Russian segment of the Internet just turned 25. In light of this landmark anniversary, Mail.Ru Group carried a survey across 9,600 Russian mobile and desktop internet users aged 14+ in March together with ResearchMe to evaluate where Russian Internet is today.
Key take-aways:
• 75.5% of Russians (109.6mn) are using the Internet today vs 3.6% back in 2000, according to FOM.
• 71% of Russians are users of smartphones, 62% use laptops, 52% are users of PCs, 37% use tablets, 28% — Smart TVs. 66% are using smartphones for Internet access more regularly, driven more by females (71%) than males (61%) and audience aged below 45.
• Internet usage is high across age groups, with 79% of teenagers accessing the Internet daily and multiple times per day and 71% related share within the 55+ age group. Only 10% access the Internet less than two-three times per day.
• Usage is rising, with 76% suggest that they spend more time on the Internet than 5-7 years ago, consistent across age groups.
• Usage preferences differ between age groups, with 39% in the 14-24 age group cannot imagine their day without listening to music in the Internet, while 45% in the 45+ age group actively use search.
• 64% use the Internet for communication within social networks, 62% to play games, 58% to search, 56% to watch videos, 55% to listen to music. Data from GlobalWebIndex shows that 71% of Russians use messengers, 74% watch videos, 52% use maps, 46% play games, 40% use mobile banking. In 2000 usage preferences were different, according to FOM, with top priorities for users being: search (43%), computers and programs (27%), news (27%), games (25%), humor (24%), and music (23%).
• 73% of respondents spend >3 hours in social networks, 36% prefer messengers and 31% — mail services. 63% have been using social networks for >6 years and only 12% are willing to easily give up on communication with their friends and relatives in social networks and messengers.
• Most popular activity within social networks is viewing photos and videos of friends (68%), followed by chatting (64%), giving likes and making comments (53%), reading and making posts in groups (48%), loading own photos and videos (47%).
• Women are more active in social networks with 76% saying that they spend 3 hours + /dayin social networks vs 69% of men. GlobalWebIndex data suggests that average Russian spent 2 hours 16 minutes per day using social media in 2018, up by a minute vs 2017. This is in line with global average.
• Viewing video is the most popular Internet action category mentioned by 74% of users, followed by ordering taxi (45%) or buying/selling goods using classifieds (43%), ordering food (30%), education (18%).
• Gaming is equally popular in those aged below 35 and within the 35+, with 58% saying that they play games 3 hours+/day.
• Women are more active in on-line shopping, with 69% noting rising activity in the area vs 60% among men. They are more engaged in classifieds, 63% noting increased acvtivity there vs 55% among men.
• 48% have been using classifieds for <3 years, 20% started using these less than 6 months ago.
• On-line education is just ramping, with 30% having started accessing it less than 6 months ago, but 67% believe that on-line will become the main form of education in the next 25 years.
More detailed take-aways can be found here (in Russian).
Recent We Are Social report for Internet trends in 2018 showed a few additional points, which could be of interest:
• Russians spent 6 hours 29 minutes on average on-line, 2 minutes more than in 2017. This compares to 6 hours and 42 minutes spent on-line on average globally, including 3 hours and 14 minutes via mobiles/tablets.
• Russian is the second most popular language after English, accounting for 6.1% of content on world’s top 10 million websites.
• VK, Mail’s e-mail service Mail.ru, and OK rank among top-10 in terms of monthly Internet trafficin Russia.
• 21% of Russian Internet users use voice search & voice commands vs 39% global average;
• Russia ranked among top-20 countries in 2018 in terms of social media growth in users (+2.2mn, +3% YoY), while social media penetration of 49% (70mn) is above global average of 45% of population. 57.75mn or 82.5% of Russian social users access these via mobile.
• According to App Annie, VK and Pandao were among top-10 most loaded apps in Russia in 2018, while Mail.Ru Group’s Clever was 3rd most loaded game locally.
• According to GlobalWebIndex, 58% of Russian Internet users have bought something on-line in the past month, among the lowest globally, with 75% being global average.
• According to Statista, Russia ranks significantly below global average of $634 in terms of ARPU per e-commerce user, at $215, with ARPU at 2% of GDP per capita vs 7.2% in China or 4.1% in the UK and 3.3% in the US. However, ARPU was up 11% YoY in 2018 and total e-commerce market value stood at $17.23bn, rising by 12% YoY. There were 80.1mn Russians buying goods on-line, up 1.1% YoY, which means 56% penetration.
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