Russian Web 2.0 Explodes with Content – 10 Million Blogs through 2008

I was a lucky youngster. Since I changed seven, I waited with exquisite anticipation for lunchtime, when my mother, who worked at a huge publishing house, would convey a freshly published % of Soviet newspapers, like “Izvestiya,” “Pravda,” “Trud,” “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” “Krasnaya Zvezda,” “Sovetsky Sport,” all in all, up to ten+ newspapers. There was nothing more excellent than to chomp on a juicy apple and examine all the cutting-edge news in a single p.C.! I even used to combat with my older brother to get “Sovetsky Sport” and “Komsomolskaya Pravda” first.

Despite the abundance of patterns, from the stiff and authentic “Pravda” to the greater comfy and younger “Komsomolskaya Pravda,” the opinions expressed have been trimmed to the rules of the reigning Soviet propaganda gadget. Only after the genie of glasnost got out of Gorbachev’s bottle did I see a few unusually essential articles in the Soviet press. Even then, humans still couldn’t speak up or relate their opinions to precise occasions, except discussing it with buddies or family in their tiny kitchens, in which people could talk about something and everything at small kitchen tables with vodka and pickles…

In the early Yeltsin era, Alas, the newly minted democratic Russian media advanced in a motley crew of yellow press, scandals, and cleaning soap operas. It often became hard to sift through this float and locate real pearls of proper reality and compelling criticism. In the overdue ’90s, the Internet gave birth to the blogging universe. It quickly received a reputation from mass customers, journalists, politicians, and critics, developing a massive Russian salad of critiques and philosophies never tasted before.

Today, Russian-running blog services are on their manner up. The modern research by Yandex, the Russian search engine No. 1, confirmed that the two most famous services inside the Russian Internet (RUNET) are LiveJournal’s Russian language network (ALJ) and LiveInternet (LI). On June 6, 2007, the RULE proudly recorded 1 million registered customers and blogs. Yet the lengthy-status #2 blogging website LI is rapidly attaining its principal rival, RULJ, regarding recent blogs and regular notes.

LI’s General Director German Klimenko said to CNews that the wide variety of energetic blogs at LI would exceed LJ via the cease of 2007. However, the distance is still wide: LI has one hundred seventy,000 everyday traffic, while 600,000 traffic at RULE. Yandex research indicates that the general boom of Russians running a blog sphere is 74% (forty-one % worldwide), but the wide variety of Russian blogs account for the handiest 3% of global blogs. Analysts believe that by way of 2008, there may be at least 10 million blogs within Russia, a part of the worldwide blogosphere.

Let’s make a quick evaluation of LI and RULE. Once you look at or sign in to each, one component will become clear without delay: RULJ is more mature and garners an older audience. LI, boasting a kaleidoscope of services, is crafted for teenagers and teens. Naturally, LI’s target audience is developing quicker than RULE. After all, kids are longing for organization and socializing. The huge distinction is inside the quality of content and blogs, wherein at LI, bored teenagers spill out their clean half-minds and goals. At the same time, the coolest ol’ RULJ crowd is a lot of extra content material with critical topics and informative content. There is a wide variety of inspiring blogs and boards at RULE. Nevertheless, both blog arenas cover well for their sort of audiences.

On July 3, 2007, popular categories covered (most popular are in caps letters): Anime, CRAP, spring, VIDEO, questions, youngsters, DIARY, friends, Eurovision, LJ, life, video games, thrilling, Internet, history, photographs, cinema, books, lifestyle, private, lytdybr or kinds,h, love, humans, my mind, my existence, MUSIC, thoughts, mind aloud, mood, news approximately fact, approximately me, relaxation, effective, POLITICS, pranks, nature, psychology, travel, job, pondering, various, dreams, activities, game, links, poems, television, creativity, checks, films, PHOTO, soccer, hockey, college, humor, me, me and my pals.

However, big RULJ and LI groups are. Happily, there’s plenty more that you can find inside the Russian blogosphere. Have you ever wondered what the Russian copies of well-known Western blog websites have been? You’re: MoiKrug.Ru is a local model of LinkedIn; Odnoklassniki.Ru – Classmates.Ru; Fakultet.Ru, VKontakte.Ru — Facebook; Habrahabr.Ru – Dig.Com; Privet.Ru (Comby) – MySpace. MoiKrug focuses on the expert community. Odnoklassniki is looking for lost contacts, in particular from their excessive faculties. VKontakte and Fakultet are orientated towards college students. While the copycats of the “One Million Dollar Site” that secured a real million to its British owner did not spark with the skeptical Russian internet network, social networks quickly went berserk.

The brand new hit of the Russian Web 2.Zero is VKontakte.Ru. Recently, Alexa (www.Alexa.Com), a leading Web statistics portal, positioned VKontakte as the Top Russian site after giants such as Mail.Ru, Yandex, and Rambler. Users reward the website’s easy-to-use design and many capabilities, just like Facebook. For example, recently, VKontakte introduced the video, allowing users to feature motion pictures on their pages. Additionally, The website will enable you to look at activity touch and friends and remind you of your friends’ birthdays. According to VKontakte statistics, 12,000 people sign up on this website daily.

Created in 2006, Habrahabr.Ru, an analog of Dig.Com, has immediately become a hit. Habrahabr’s target audience encompasses people interested in Web development and Internet economic systems, web designers, programmers, reporters, analysts, and various groups curious about the Internet. The challenge lets its customers feature blogs, write articles, paste information, and create personal audio and video packages. 2007, Habrahabr received the Project of the Year 2007 and Best Internet Community Awards.

For instance, according to Habrahabr, currently, E-Generator.Ru, supported via FINAM preserving, launched DrugMe.Ru (notice that in Russian drug actually manner “a pal”), a social website for humans with various illnesses inquisitive about socializing with each different, finding higher medicines and doctors, recommending clinics properly, etc. Among the services, which range from RULJ, an ill individual can seek among users with an equal prognosis and leave a reference approximately a selected medical doctor and hospital, and many different matters. By the end of 2007, the online website hopes to get at least 1,000,000 users. Its fundamental advertising approach could be viral marketing through the satisfied pool of first users, supplemented with catchy medical news and fulfillment memories.

Education is some other sphere. This is destined to be Web-two-old. In 2006, Intel and TransTelecom mutually launched a Web 2.Zero challenge for Russian teachers. The Letopisi.Ru challenge aimed to educate instructors using Web 2.0 ideas to create a platform for collective educational initiatives. Letopisi.Ru helped many Russian instructors contain their students in organization tasks.

So, which is the money? Mamba.Ru President Nikita Sherman stated that 15 million people use Internet courting websites. According to its-Consulting, 52% of those target audiences are guys with better schooling and business proprietors. And this market is developing by 70% to 100 hundred yearly. Thus, 200,6 web-dating website owners harvested USD 34 million of income. Yes, for danger to find your Cinderella/Jolie or a Super/Spiderman, Russian ladies, and men don’t mind spending their difficult-earned rubles.

Yet Web 2. Zero website proprietors also search for the “green” light at the end of the Web tunnel. Given that you created a unique, popular, and useful web page, the perfect way is to sell your start-up business and merge with huge Russian Web cash cows. That’s what MoiKrug.Ru and Damochka.Ru did, selling their agencies to Yandex and Rambler, respectively. However, the top managers of Fakultet.Ru selected a distinctive way to monetize their business. According to CNews, Fakultet offered every one of its customers their share in the challenge, making their subscribers shareholders. This August, the organization will sell 1,000,000 shares (1% of Charter Capital) and distribute them among its customers. The employer proprietors are looking to both monetize their enterprise and engage their clients in this commercial enterprise. Finally, other agencies, like Drug and Eva.Ru, are looking for sponsors and commercials.

Dr. Andrey Gidaspov has over ten years of revel in business consulting in Russia, CIS, and Asia’s IT and telecom (ICT) fields. Andrey has sealed deals with Russian and CIS partners for many American groups, ranging from begin-up corporations to massive multi-national agencies in Eurasia. His past clients consist of well-known generation leaders, Motorola, Harris, Tekelec, Oracle, Corning, Tellabs, Qualcomm, Net2Phone, Nortel, Andrew, and many others.