GYoung Digital Blog

In class last week, we all gave some presentations about different social media platforms, and the platform that I chose was VK, a Russian social media platform. I chose that platform because, in short, I just had a feeling that it would become important in the future, sometime.  

I decided to revisit the VK platform and give another look at it. My reason is just because that, during my research, I found that VK is HUGE!! In fact, it’s the fourth largest social media platform in the world. And that caught everyone off guard. It’s kind of weird to think that a platform could be so big, but nobody’s every heard of it. It’s not used in the states at all, we’re all hooked on Facebook. But in Russia, and Eastern Europe, VK is all the rage. At the same time, nobody uses Facebook over there, so that might explain why.

That did raise the question about why some social media platforms could become so big, but a large population would not even notice, so I decided to take a little time to explore why might that might be.

So, let’s go back to VK.

VK is the fourth largest social media platform in the world… wait, really?

In my presentation, I felt pretty confident that it is, in fact, the fourth largest in the world. After looking over the data, I’ve found that the answer is… kind of.

VK is certainly very big, but it really depends on how you define what your social platform is. For instance, I would have backed up my claim by siting a statistic from SimilarWeb, where VK is explicitly listed as the fourth.

Take a look at the image below.

You’ll notice that VK is resting comfortably at #4, following Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. However, you’ll also notice that the category for each is the same. So, VK is popular within that very specific category. However, when you broaden the scope and include all categories, which will include search, news, shopping, and etc., then VK will still rest at #14. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

That list corresponds with another list, 65+ Social Networking Sites You Need To Know, VK is still listed at #17, and it’s all in order of the most active monthly users. However, that list differs because it uses a broader scope, including search engines, messaging services, and blog sites. VK is a very specific kind of social networking, much like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

So, yes, VK is the fourth largest, but that does require a narrow scope of what you mean by s social networking.

With that said though, it’s work taking a closer look at the numbers.

Da Numbers

At least, as of August 2018 it had 500 million users, and the website itself says that there are almost 100 million monthly active users, about 10 billion daily messages, and about one billion daily likes. Digging a little deeper, when you come across the website similarweb.com, it will tell you that it receives almost 2 billion visits per month.

The platform is huge in Russia, but it’s also widely used in Europe too,particularly in Eastern Europe.

Keep in mind, the graphic to the right is for December 2019.

So, why isn’t there a presence in the United States?

VK Presence in United States

In case you’re wondering why Russia loves to use VK instead of Faceook, then you’re in luck, because a couple professors at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in Germany asked the exact same question, and they published their findings.

The reasons, simply put, is that people in Russia simply find VK easier to use. Also, VK includes many other media features that Facebook simply doesn’t have, such as a music player built into the platform, as well as a video player. So, in VK, it’s sort of a combination of Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify, all wrapped up in one. So, because of all that, Russians think VK is much more fun to use.

Also, VK rarely ever changes its interface, so the front page has looked the same for years. Unlike Facebook, which seems to change every couple months. (And, i’m sure that we all remember the early days when younger people used to LOSE THEIR DAMNED MINDS every time Facebook changed its interface, even a bit. VK users are spared of that anxiety.)

Another reason why it’s so popular is likely because , in it’s early days, VK was the wild west. It allowed any kind of content available on the platform, including pirated content, such as films, and probably all kinds of other crazy stuff.

And then there’s my own speculation…

Facebook pretty much devoured the entire market early on. VK launched a few years later, when Facebook was already global force. It’s fair to say that Russians simply found a product that was more fun to use,so they chose VK over Facebook, and at the same time, I wouldn’t discount the sentiment of VK being a Russian product, and Facebook being American. America was too stuffy, and corporate. VK was fun, and punk rock.

Also, Russia seems to be very lax on their intellectual property laws, so it was easier to get away with copying Facebook.

Besides, as VK grew, it fell under ownership of Mail.ru, which is their media giant, which likely has close ties to the Russian government. And, much like the Chinese government,they probably wanted to control the information that’s going out in the world.

But that’s my speculation! I could be wrong, and/or stupid, and/or drunk. Which is very possible.

Leave a comment, let me know what you think.