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Disappearing: Russian audiences of Facebook* and Instagram* decreased by eight and four times

The daily Russian audience of Facebook* and Instagram* has decreased by eight and four times since January of this year. Against their background, Telegram coverage increased by 66%. This is stated in a Mediascope study made for the Russian Forbes.

Mediascope examined Facebook* and Instagram* data in two categories: for sessions of any duration and for sessions lasting 5 minutes or more. In the first case, those sessions were also taken into account when a person entered a blocked service, made sure that it was not working and immediately left. Here, Instagram* figures fell from 37.8 million in February to 10.6 million in July. In the case when the session lasted from 5 minutes or longer, the fall in the audience was even more rapid: from 28.9 million to 5.5 million.

At the same time, the audience of Facebook* showed a sharp decline: from 9 million in February to 1.9 million in July. At the same time, 2.7 million people spent more than 5 minutes in the Facebook* application at the beginning of the year, and now - 305 thousand users.

Telegram significantly increased its audience in March of this year: if in February its audience increased from 25 million to 27.5 million, then in March there was a jump to 40.6 million. In July, the number of daily sessions in Telegram reached 41.5 million.

If we talk about VKontakte, then its audience increased from 46 million people in January to 50 million in July. Moreover, the greatest increase in user interest in this social network was also recorded in March.

Forbes asked to comment on the new data in Roskomsvoboda. Its head Artyom Kozlyuk explained that it is possible that such a radical drop in audiences did not actually happen, since Russians began to actively use VPN services in the period indicated in the study. But Mediascope objected, emphasizing that the company “sees the whole picture of media consumption” and those users who access social networks through a VPN.

The general trends of audience migration from one platform to another persist, but after the most tangible fluctuations in March, now the trajectories of growth and decline look quite smooth.

*banned in Russia

Disappearing: Russian audiences of Facebook* and Instagram* decreased by eight and four times