A recent study has revealed that Russians are the heaviest social networkers worldwide in terms of time spent per user. comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released a study of internet usage in Russia based on August 2010 data from the comScore Media Metrix service.

In August 2010, 34.5 million Russian internet users (74.5 percent of the online population) visited at least one social networking site. With an average of 9.8 hours per visitor during the month, Russians spent more than double the worldwide average of 4.5 hours per visitors on social networks, ranking it #1 among all countries in social networking engagement. Israel ranked second with an average of 9.2 hours per visitor, followed by Turkey with 7.6 hours.

Vkontakte.ru ranked as the top social networking site in Russia with 27.8 million visitors, followed by Odnoklassniki with 16.7 million visitors. Despite Facebook’s strong leadership position both worldwide and in the majority of individual Internet markets, it ranked just fifth in Russia with 4.5 million visitors. However, its audience has grown 376 percent in the past year, outpacing each of the other top five social networking sites in the market.

Of the 44 million Web users age 15 and older in Russia in August 2010, 34.9 million accessed the Russian search portal Yandex Sites, ranking it as the top property site in the market. Internet holding company DST, which includes, among others, Mail.ru, Odnoklassniki and ICQ, ranked second with an audience of 34.4 million visitors, followed by Google Sites with 30.2 million unique visitors. Russian-based social network Vkontakte ranked fourth with 28 million visitors (63.6 percent reach), while RosBusinessConsulting ranked fifth with 19.3 million visitors (43.9 percent reach).

“It is very exciting to watch the developments of the continuously strong-growing Russian internet market, where many Russian-based companies still outnumber global players,” said Mike Read, SVP & managing director, comScore Europe. “The substantial growth in the Russian social media sector provides a sizeable advertising opportunity and reflects the importance of online connectivity for the Russian population.”

Source: Comscore/USA, 20 Oct 2010

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