VK (service) - Wikipedia

Russian social media and social networking service VK

Screenshot
Type of site	Social networking service
Available in	86 languages, including Russian, Ukrainian and English
Founded	10 October 2006; 18 years ago (2006-10-10) in Saint Petersburg, Russia
Area served	Worldwide; the majority of its users are in the former USSR or in the CIS
Created by	Pavel Durov, Nikolai Durov
CEO	Vladimir Kiriyenko
Revenue	42.751 ₽ billion (2016)[1]
Parent	VK (company)
URL	vk.com
Registration	Required
Users	656,000,000+ (as of 21 May 2021[update])[2]
Launched	10 October 2006; 18 years ago (2006-10-10)
Current status	Active

VK (short for its original name VKontakte; Russian: ВКонтакте, meaning InContact) is a Russian online social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg. VK is available in multiple languages but it is predominantly used by Russian speakers. VK users can message each other publicly or privately, edit these messages,[3] create groups, public pages, and events; share and tag images, audio, and video; and play browser-based games.[4]

As of August 2018[update], VK had at least 500 million accounts.[5] As of November 2022, it was the sixth most popular website in Russia.[6] The network was also popular in Ukraine until it was banned by the Verkhovna Rada in 2017.[7]

According to Semrush, in 2024 VK is the 30th most visited website in the world.[8]

History

[edit]

VKontakte was conceived in 2006 when Pavel Durov, creator of the popular student forum spbgu.ru, met his former classmate Vyacheslav Mirilashvili in St. Petersburg after graduating from the Faculty of Philology at St Petersburg State University. Vyacheslav showed Durov the increasingly popular Facebook, after which the friends decided to create a new Russian social network. Lev Leviev, an Israeli classmate of Vyacheslav Mirilashivili, became the third co-founder. Vyacheslav Mirilashvili borrowed the money from his billionaire father and became the largest shareholder. Lev Leviev took over operational management, and Durov became CEO. Pavel Durov attracted his older brother Nikolai, a multiple winner of international math and programming competitions, to develop the site.[9][10]

Durov launched VKontakte for beta testing in September 2006. The following month, the domain name Vkontakte.ru was registered.[11] The new project was incorporated on 19 January 2007 as a Russian private limited company. In February 2007 the site reached a user base of over 100,000 and was recognized as the second largest company in Russia's nascent social network market. In the same month, the site was subjected to a severe DDoS attack, which briefly put it offline. The user base reached 1 million in July 2007, and 10 million in April 2008. In December 2008 VK overtook rival Odnoklassniki as Russia's most popular social networking service.[12]

Website

[edit]

Similar to many social networks, the platform's fundamental features revolve around private messaging, sharing photos, posting status updates, and exchanging links with friends. VK also provides tools for administering online communities and managing celebrity pages. The site allows its users to upload, search and stream media content, such as videos and music. VK features an advanced search engine, that allows complex queries for finding friends, as well as a real-time news search. VK updated its features and design in April 2016.[13]

Features

[edit]

• Messaging. VK Private Messages can be exchanged between groups of 2 to 500 people. An email address can also be specified as the recipient. Each message may contain up to 10 attachments: Photos, Videos, Audio Files, Maps (an embedded map with a manually placed marker), and Documents.[14]
• News. VK users can post on their profile walls, each post may contain up to 10 attachments – media files, maps, and documents (see above). User mentions and hashtags are supported. In the case of multiple photo attachments, the previews are automatically scaled and arranged in a magazine-style layout. The news feed can be switched between all news (default) and most interesting modes. The site features a news-recommendation engine, global real-time search, and individual search for posts and comments on specific users' walls.
• Communities. VK features three types of communities. Groups are better suited for decentralized communities (discussion boards, wiki-style articles, editable by all members, etc.). Public pages is a news feed-orientated broadcasting tool for celebrities and businesses. The two types are largely interchangeable, the main difference being in the default settings. The third type of community is called Events, which are used for appropriately organizing concerts and events in an appropriate way.[15]

• Like buttons. VK like buttons for posts, comments, media, and external sites operate differently from Facebook. Liked content doesn't get automatically pushed to the user's wall, but is saved in the private Favorites section instead. The user has to press a second 'share with friends' button to share an item on their wall or send it via private message to a friend.
• Privacy. Users can control the availability of their content within the network and on the Internet. Blanket and granular privacy settings are available for pages and individual content.
• Synchronization with other social networks. Any news published on the VK wall will appear on Facebook or Twitter. Certain news may not be published by clicking on the logo next to the "Send" button. Editing a post in VK does not change the post in Facebook or Twitter and vice versa. However, removing the news in VK will remove it from other social networks.
• SMS service. Russian users can receive and reply to a private message or leave a comment for community news using SMS.
• Music. Users have access to the audio files uploaded by other users. In addition, users can upload the audio files themselves, create playlists and share audios with others by attaching to messages and wall posts. The uploaded audio files cannot violate copyright laws.[16]

Popularity

[edit]

As of May 2017, according to Alexa Internet ranking, VK is one of the most visited websites in some Eurasian countries. It is:

• 4th most visited in Russia;[17]
• 3rd most visited in Belarus;[18]
• 6th most visited in Kazakhstan;[19]
• 8th most visited in Kyrgyzstan[20] and Moldova;[21]
• 12th most visited in Latvia.[22]

It was the fourth most viewed site in Ukraine until, in May 2017, the Ukrainian government banned the use of VK in Ukraine.[23] According to a study for May 2018 conducted by Factum Group Ukraine VK remained the fourth most viewed site in Ukraine, but Facebook was twice as much visited.[24] For 2019, VK appeared as the most visited social network in Ukraine according to Alexa.[25] According to the Internet Association of Ukraine the share of Ukrainian Internet users who visit VK daily had fallen from 54% to 10% from September 2016 to September 2019.[26] They also claimed in November 2019 that Facebook was the most popular social network.[26]

VK was expected to gain most of the users lost by Facebook and Instagram after they were blocked in Russia in 2022, according to a Calltouch poll.[27]

Ownership

[edit]

Initially, founder and CEO Pavel Durov owned 20% of shares (although he had majority voting power through proxy votes), and a trio of Russian-Israeli investors Yitzchak Mirilashvili, his father Mikhael Mirilashvili, and Lev Leviev[28] owned 60%, 10%, and 10% respectively.[29]

In 2007, Digital Sky Technologies, an investment company managed by Yuri Milner, acquired a total of 24.99% of the shares from shareholders, investing $16.3 million.[10] In preparation for the IPO in September 2010, DST separated international and Russian assets: the former formed the DST Global fund, while the latter, including VKontakte and rival social network Odnoklassniki, were merged into Mail.ru Group. Mail.ru Group used part of the money to acquire 7.5% of the social network for $112.5 million at a valuation of the entire project of 1.5 billion dollars. After exercising a 7.5% option in July 2011 for $111.7 million, Mail.ru Group accumulated a 39.99% stake in VKontakte.[30][31][32]

The head of Mail.ru Group, Dmitry Grishin, voiced the company's intention to gain 100% control over VKontakte. MRG was discussing with shareholders to buy out shares from the valuation of the entire company in $2-3 billion. In the summer of 2011, Mirilashvili and Leviev were ready to accept in payment owned by Mail.ru Group shares of Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga, but the deal failed due to Durov's unwillingness to sell a stake on MRG terms. Later, the co-founders considered VKontakte's IPO as an alternative. In March 2012, Durov "accidentally" became plugged into the negotiations where Mirilashvili and Leviev discussed selling their stakes directly to Mail.ru Group's main investor, Alisher Usmanov. On the same day, Durov deleted the pages of the first co-investors, stopped contacting them, and soon announced that VKontakte would postpone its IPO indefinitely.[30][33]

On 29 May 2012, Mail.ru Group announced its decision to yield control of the company to Durov by offering him the voting rights on its shares. Combined with Durov's personal 12% stake, this gave him 52% of the votes.[34][35]

In April 2013, the Mirilashvili family sold its 40% share in VK to United Capital Partners for $1.12 billion,[36][37] while Lev Leviev sold his 8% share in the same deal, giving United Capital Partners 48% ownership. In January 2014, VK's founder Pavel Durov sold his 12% stake in the company to Ivan Tavrin, the CEO of MegaFon, which is controlled by Alisher Usmanov. Following the deal, Usmanov and his allies controlled around 52% of the company.[38] Shortly thereafter, the CEO of Megafon, sold his 12% stake to Mail.ru, thus allowing Mail.ru to consolidate its controlling stake of 52% in VK.[39]

On 1 April 2014, Durov submitted his resignation to the board; at first, due to the fact the company confirmed he had resigned, it was believed to be related to the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in the previous February.[40] However, Durov himself claimed it was an April Fool's Joke on 3 April 2014.[41] On 21 April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO, claiming he failed to withdraw his letter of resignation a month earlier.[42][43] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin's political faction,[42][44] suggesting his dismissal was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VKontakte group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement.[42][44] Durov then left Russia and stated that he had "no plans to go back"[44] and that "the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment".[43]

On 16 September 2014, the Mail.ru group bought the remaining 48% stake of VK from United Capital Partners (UCP)[45] for $1.5 billion,[45] thus becoming the sole proprietor of the social network.[46]

In December 2021, Russian state-owned bank Gazprombank and insurance company Sogaz bought out 57.3% of VK shares, thus becoming the holders of the company's controlling interest.[47][48]

Controversies

[edit]

Copyright issues

[edit]

Litigation

[edit]

In 2008, the leading Russian television channel TV Russia (TV channel name RTR used in 1991–2002, then Russia 1) and television company VGTRK sued VKontakte (then VK) over unlicensed copies of two of its films which had been uploaded by VK users. In 2010, this dispute was settled by the Russian High Arbitration Court in favour of the social network. The court ruled that VK is not responsible for its users’ copyright violations, taking into account that both parties agreed with the technical possibility to identify the user who posted illegal content and who, consequently, must incur the liability.[49] Another ruling early in 2012 went partially in favor of Gala Records (now Warner Music Russia), a recording studio, when the same court ordered VK to pay $7000 for not being active enough in regard to copyrighted materials.[50]

Efforts against copyright infringement

[edit]

VK offers a content removal tool for copyright holders.[51][52] Large-scale copyright holders may gain access to bulk content removal tools.[53]

Since 2010, VK has also entered several partnerships with legal content providers such as television networks.[54] and streaming providers.[55] Most notably, the Video on Demand provider Ivi.ru that has secured licensing rights with all Hollywood majors in 2012.[56] These partnerships allow providers to remove user-uploaded content from VK and substitute it with legal embedded copies from the provider's site.[57] This legal content can be either ad-sponsored, subscription-based, or free, depending on the provider's choices. VK does not display its own advertising in the site's music or video sections, nor in the videos themselves. In October 2013, VKontakte was cleared of copyright infringement charges by a court in Saint Petersburg. The judge ruled that the social network is not responsible for the content uploaded by its users.[58]

In November 2014, the head of the Roskomnadzor, Maxim Ksenzov, said that VKontakte would complete the process of legalization of the content at the beginning of 2015. At that time (November 2014), negotiations between major label companies and the social network VKontakte were ongoing.[59]

DDoS attacks on sites

[edit]

Because the social network is one of the most popular and visited sites in runet, its visits can be used to make DDoS attacks on smaller sites. VK performed DDOS attacks on certain sites, making users' browsers send multiple requests to the target site without their consent. The targets were the Runet Prize voting page in 2008[60] and the CAPTCHA-solving service antigate.com in 2012.[61][62] It was done by inserting an iframe and a piece of JavaScript code which periodically reloaded the iframe. As a countermeasure, antigate was detecting whether iframe was loaded from VK and if it were antigate had redirected request to xHamster, a pornography website. VK needed to cease the attack due to the site's use by children. VK tried to use XMLHttpRequest to solve this problem, but had forgotten about the same-origin policy. They succeeded in stopping the attack, though there were many ways to solve the problem with redirect[original research?].

Durov's dismissal

[edit]

Durov was dismissed as CEO in April 2014 after he had failed to retract a letter of resignation. Durov contended that the resignation letter was an April fools prank.[42] Durov then claimed Vladimir Putin's allies had, in effect, taken over the company,[42][44][63] and suggested his ousting was the result of his refusal to hand over personal details of users to the Russian Federal Security Service and his refusal to shut down a VK group dedicated to anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny.[42][44]

Censorship

[edit]

On 24 May 2013, it was reported in the media that the site had been mistakenly put on a list of websites banned by the Russian government.[64] Some critics have accused the blacklist as the latest in a series of suspicious incidents to have happened to the website in recent months as a way for the Russian government to increase their stake in, and control of the site.[65]

On 18 November 2013, following an order from the Court of Rome, VK was blocked in Italy after a complaint from Medusa Film stating that it was hosting an illegal copy of one of its films.[66] However, in April 2015, the site was reopened for Italian users and its mobile app is available on both the App Store and Google Play.[citation needed]

In January 2016, China banned VKontakte, claiming that it was manipulating web content and cooperating with the Kremlin. According to Russia's media watchdog, the network estimates around 300,000 users based in China.[67] As of 14 February 2018, China authorities unblocked VKontakte and it was fully accessible in the country.[68]

In May 2017, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree to impose a ban on Mail.ru and its widely used social networks including VKontakte and Odnoklassniki as part of its continued sanctions on Russia for its annexation of Crimea and involvement in the war in Donbas.[23][69][70] Reporters Without Borders condemned the ban, calling it a "disproportionate measure that seriously undermines the Ukrainian people's right to information and freedom of expression."[71] VK closed its office in Ukraine's capital Kyiv in June 2017.[72]

In December 2021, VKontakte's CEO, Boris Dobrodeev resigned from his post. Reuters linked Dobrodeev's resignation to the acquisition of VK's majority interest by two state-owned companies that happened the same month. According to one analyst, the state consolidation of VKontakte would cause greater censorship by the government.[73]

On 12 May 2022, in connection with the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU), NEPLP decided to limit the activity of "VKontakte" ("vk.com"), "Odnoklassniki" ("ok.ru") and "Moy Mir" ("my.mail.ru") social medias in Latvia. The decision was made because NEPLP has evidence that the platforms are owned and controlled by Yury Kovalchuk and Vladimir Kiriyenko. The mentioned persons are subject to EU sanctions in connection with undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.[74]

After Russian military invasion of Ukraine, on 26 September 2022, the VK application (as well as other applications of the holding services) was removed from the Apple App Store due to international sanctions.[75][76] On 28 September, the Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor issued a statement demanding an explanation for the removal of the VK application from the App Store.[77] CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko was sanctioned by the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, Australia and various countries.[78]

Prosecution of users in Russia

[edit]

In July 2012, VKontakte was accused of close cooperation with the Centre for Combating Extremism (Centre E), a unit within the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs heavily criticized for repressing opposition activists.[79][80] For publications, reposts, comments and likes posted on their VKontakte pages, dozens of Russian citizens were sentenced to fines, suspended sentences and imprisonment. Most of the cases against users are qualified as propaganda of extremism, xenophobia and Nazism. Statistically, among all the social networking services available in Russia, the users of VKontakte were targeted by police almost exclusively.[81]

Events and projects

[edit]

Automated workplace of a civil servant

[edit]

By 2023, on the basis of VK, the “Automated workplace of a civil servant” (АРМ ГС in Russian) was developed, to which it is planned to transfer all Russian civil servants. AWP includes mail, calendar, cloud storage, instant messenger, supports audio and video calls. It should replace Telegram, WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Docs, Zoom and Skype widely used in Russia. Thus, the Russian government intends to exclude foreign services from the public administration system. Officials were supposed to switch to "Automated workplace" from May 1, 2023. [82]

In June 2023, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media announced a competition for software developers to "scale" the workspace and provide the necessary level of cryptographic protection. It is planned to spend 9 million rubles on the project.[83]

Hackathons

[edit]

VK organized their first 24-hour Hackathon in 2015 from 31 October to 1 November. The participants were invited to develop projects united by a common idea: “Make it Simple!” (Russian: «Упрощайте!»). 34 teams took part in the competition. A prize pool of 300 thousand rubles was split among the winners.[84]

The second VK Hackathon took place from 26 to 27 November 2016. The participants developed projects for the community app platform. The “Search for Lost Cats” (Russian: «Поиск пропавших котиков») app won the “Developers’ Choice” category. The prize pool for the event was 300 thousand rubles.[85]

The third VK Hackathon took place from 20 to 22 October 2017 with 320 participants competing in the event. The prize pool was one million rubles. An application designed to help users navigate the State Hermitage Museum won the “Culture” category.[86]

Start Fellows

[edit]

In 2011, Pavel Durov and Yuri Milner created Start Fellows, a grant program founded to support projects in the field of technology.[87] In 2014, VK took over the Start Fellows program and made it more systematic. The grant was provided to 3 companies each month and included project consultation from VK along with 25 thousand rubles a month for advertisement on the VK platform. Winners of the grant include “University Schedules” (Russian: «Расписание вузов»), a scheduling app, LiveCamDroid, a mobile streaming service, HTML Academy, an educational project, and others.[88][89][90][91]

VK re-launched the project in 2017. Only active projects with an earnings model could submit applications. 327 grant applications were received but only 67 of them passed the initial screening. The total prize pool was 2.5 million rubles.[92]

VK Cup

[edit]

The first VK Cup, a programming championship for young programmers aged 13–23, was held on 16 July 2012 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.[93]

VK and Codeforces co-organized the second VK Cup programming championship, which took place from 24 to 27 July 2015. The winners received a total of 1,048,576 or 220 rubles (an amount related to round binary numbers).[94]

The third VK Cup took place from 1 to 4 July 2016 and had a prize pool of 2.5 million rubles.[95]

VK and Codeforces co-organized the fourth VK Cup which took place from 8 to 9 July 2017. Teams from 52 countries applied to take part in the competition. The prize pool for the competition was 2.5 million rubles.[96]

VK Music Awards

[edit]

The first VK Music Awards ceremony took place on 25 December 2017. The VK Music Awards were produced by Timur Bekmambetov and the Bazelevs Company with Pavel Volya hosting the event.[97] The awards ceremony was held in the form of an online live stream.[98] Any VK user could watch the broadcast live. After the ceremony, a private concert was held in the Vegas City Hall in Moscow. Tickets to the event could be won through a contest held in the VK Music community.[97] VK Music Awards winners were determined by the number of plays an artist's song got on VK and the BOOM app. The names of the 30 award winners were published on the official VK Music Awards community page and on the BOOM app website. “Rosé Wine” (Allj and Feduk), “Lambada” (T-Fest [ru] and Scriptonite), and “My Half” (MiyaGi and Endspiel [ru]) topped the list of most listened to songs. The official pages of all award winners have been marked with a special symbol.[99]

VK Fest

[edit]

Since 2015, VK has held a yearly 2-day open-air music and entertainment festival. This festival traditionally takes place on a weekend in July at the 300th Anniversary Park [ru] (Russian: Парк имени 300-летия Санкт-Петербурга) in St. Petersburg, Russia. According to data from the organizer, 70 thousand people attended the festival in 2016, with the number rising to 85 thousand attendees in 2017. In 2017, around 40 artists and groups performed on 3 stages, including Little Big, The Hatters, and others. Bloggers and other famous individuals, such as Dmitry Grishin, Timur Bekmambetov, and Mikhail Piotrovsky (speakers at the 2017 festival), are also an important part of the festival. More than 1.5 million people watched the festival's official live stream.[100]

See also

[edit]

• Ambient awareness
• Cyworld
• Facebook
• Internet in Russia
• Myspace
• Qzone
• List of social networking websites

References

[edit]

1. ^ "Mail.ru Group Financial Statements 2016" (PDF). Mail.ru. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
2. ^ "Каталог пользователей ВКонтакте". VK.com. Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
3. ^ "Во «ВКонтакте» появилась возможность редактировать отправленные сообщения". 27 November 2017. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
4. ^ "• Social gaming: revenue in Russia 2010-2013 | Statistic". Statista.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
5. ^ "List of VK users". Vk.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
6. ^ "Russia's Top Websites Ranking in November 2022 | Similarweb". Similarweb. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
7. ^ "Рада підтримала продовження заборони на російські соцмережі". Archived from the original on 25 July 2021. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
8. ^ "Website Ranking". Semrush. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
9. ^ Loshak, Andrei (16 October 2019). "История рунета. Бизнес: ОК, ВК и все-все-все". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
10. ^ a b "Код Павла Дурова". Forbes (in Russian). 24 June 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
11. ^ Friedrichsen & Mühl-Benninghaus 2013, p. 406.
12. ^ "Vkontakte Remains more popular than Facebook in Russia". Mynewsdesk. Archived from the original on 7 August 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
13. ^ "VK.com New Interface, Design, Looks & Tips". Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
14. ^ Supported are the formats: doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx, rtf, pdf, png, jpg, gif, psd, mp3, djvu, fb2, ps and archives containing these formats. Executable files and files over 200 Mb are not allowed. Video chat is also available (for users who allow incoming calls) since 2012.
15. ^ "Types of community pages". vk.com. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
16. ^ "Vkontakte Music 2.0". vk.com. Archived from the original on 8 May 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
17. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Russia". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
18. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Belarus". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
19. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Kazakhstan". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
20. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Kyrgyzstan". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
21. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Moldova". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
22. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Latvia". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
23. ^ a b Ukraine's Poroshenko to block Russian social networks Archived 9 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News (16 May 2017)
24. ^ Banned VK social network remains fourth in Internet traffic in Ukraine in May Archived 30 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Interfax-Ukraine (13 June 2018)
25. ^ "Alexa - top sites in Ukraine". Alexa.com. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
26. ^ a b (in Ukrainian) Three years without VKontakte: what social networks do Ukrainians prefer Archived 14 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrayinska Pravda (14 November 2019)
27. ^ "Rossiyskaya Gazeta: Most Russians ready to move to domestic social media platforms". Rossiyskaya Gazeta. 24 March 2022. Archived from the original on 20 April 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
28. ^ "Lev Leviev sells Russian social network stake". Globes. 18 April 2013. Archived from the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
29. ^ Кто в контакте (in Russian). Vedomosti. 29 February 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
30. ^ a b "Театр Дурова: почему основатель «ВКонтакте» проиграл битву за социальную сеть". Forbes (in Russian). 20 March 2014. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
31. ^ "Exercise of Option". Mail.ru Group. 14 July 2011. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
32. ^ "Vkontakte.ru shareholder structure unveiled". East-West Digital News. 6 August 2011. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
33. ^ "Лев Левиев впервые рассказал свою версию продажи «ВКонтакте»". The Bell. 1 November 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
34. ^ "Shareholder Mail.ru Group yields control to founder". ewdn.com. 30 May 2012. Archived from the original on 2 June 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.
35. ^ Bowker, John (29 May 2012). "Russia's VKontakte delays IPO after Facebook debacle". Moscow: Reuters. Archived from the original on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
36. ^ "The richest Israelis got NIS 10 billion richer in 2013". Haaretz. Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
37. ^ "UCP closes deal to buy 48% of Vkontakte from Mirilashvili, Leviev", interfax, archived from the original on 23 June 2019, retrieved 14 February 2014
38. ^ Maria Kiselyova (24 January 2014). "Usmanov tightens hold on Russian social net VKontakte as founder sells stake". The West Australian (Reuters). Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2014.
39. ^ Olga Razumovskaya (18 March 2014). "Mail.Ru Secures Control of VKontakte". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
40. ^ "No joke as 'Russian Facebook' founder resigns amid dispute (Update)" Archived 8 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Published 1 April 2014. Retrieved 29 February 2016.Pavel Durov Resigns As Head Of Russian Social Network VK.com, Ukraine Conflict Was The Tipping Point Archived 8 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Published 1 April 2014. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
41. ^ Going, going, gone - Pavel Durov quits VK Archived 6 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Rusbase. Published 2 April 2014. No update time given. Retrieved 29 February 2016.Founder of Social Network VK Pavel Durov Says Resignation as CEO was April Fools' Prank Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. The Moscow Times. Published at midnight Moscow Time (MST) on 4 April 2014. Last modified at 7:26 MST. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
42. ^ a b c d e f "Vkontakte Founder Pavel Durov Learns He's Been Fired Through Media | Business". The Moscow Times. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
43. ^ a b "Durov, Out For Good From VK.com, Plans A Mobile Social Network Outside Russia" Archived 6 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, TechCrunch, 22 April 2014.
44. ^ a b c d e "Pavel Durov left Russia after being pushed out". Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
45. ^ a b "Mail.ru deal firms control over VKontakte". Financial Times. 16 September 2014. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
46. ^ "Russia's Mail.Ru buys remaining stake in VKontakte for $1.5 bln". Reuters. 16 September 2014. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
47. ^ "Russia takes direct control of top social media networks". The Bell. 6 December 2021. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
48. ^ "Gazprom Gains Control of Russia's Top Social Network". The Moscow Times. 3 December 2021. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
49. ^ "Russian court rules social network not responsible for user copyright violations". ewdn.com. 16 March 2011. Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
50. ^ "Vkontakte.ru too "passive" with copyright infringement, says arbitration court". ewdn.com. 22 February 2012. Archived from the original on 21 November 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
51. ^ "Copyright Violation Notification". Vk.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
52. ^ "VK.com TakeDown Process | Artistic License". Artistic License. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
53. ^ "TNT removes its videos from Vkontakte". Lenta.ru (in Russian). 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
54. ^ "CTC Media clamps down on piracy". ewdn.com. 20 June 2011. Archived from the original on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
55. ^ "Vkontakte to replace pirated video with legal content". Lenta.ru. 25 November 2010. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
56. ^ "Russian Online Video Service ivi.ru Inks Deals with Hollywood Majors". The Hollywood Reporter. 27 April 2012. Archived from the original on 7 January 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
57. ^ "Interview with Oleg Tumanov, Ivi.ru CEO". RBC Daily (in Russian). 14 May 2012. Archived from the original on 1 November 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
58. ^ Andy (26 October 2013). "Russian Facebook Not Responsible For Users' Pirate Music Uploads". Torrentfreak.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
59. ^ ""ВКонтакте" удалит весь пиратский контент в начале 2015 года | MacDigger - Новости из мира Apple". Macdigger.ru. 20 November 2014. Archived from the original on 5 December 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
60. ^ "ВКонтакте против "Премии рунета"". Habrahabr.ru. 24 October 2008. Archived from the original on 21 April 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
61. ^ ""ÂÊîíòàêòå" îñóùåñòâèë DDoS àòàêó íà ñàéò antigate.com". Securitylab.ru. 26 April 2012. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
62. ^ "ВКонтакте ддосит antigate.com". Habrahabr.ru. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
63. ^ Toor, Amar (22 April 2014). "Russia's largest social network is under the control of Putin's allies, founder says". The Verge. Archived from the original on 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
64. ^ "Error blacklists Russia's top social network VKontakte". BBC News. 24 May 2013. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
65. ^ Balmforth, Tom (28 May 2013). "Russia's Top Social Network Under Fire". Rferl.org. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2013.
66. ^ "How Berlusconi's Company Blocked Off vKontakte and File-Hosting Sites in Italy". News.softpedia.com. 19 November 2013. Archived from the original on 20 November 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
67. ^ "Russia's Media Watchdog Boasts It 'Convinced' China to Lift Vkontakte Ban". Archived from the original on 29 December 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
68. ^ "China unblocks Russian social network VKontakte". TASS (in Russian). Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
69. ^ Poroshenko, Petro (15 May 2017). "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №133/2017: Про рішення Ради національної безпеки і оборони України від 28 квітня 2017 року "Про застосування персональних спеціальних економічних та інших обмежувальних заходів (санкцій)"" [DECREE OF THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE №133 / 2017: On the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated April 28, 2017 "On the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)"] (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. Archived from the original on 16 May 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
70. ^ "Додаток 2 до рішення Ради національної безпеки і оборони України від "28" квітня 2017 року "Про застосування персональних спеціальних економічних та інших обмежувальних заходів (санкцій)" ЮРИДИЧНІ ОСОБИ, до яких застосовуються обмежувальні заходи (санкції)" [Annex 2 to the Decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine dated April 28, 2017 "On the Application of Personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) "Legal Entities under Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)"] (PDF) (in Ukrainian). President of Ukraine. 28 April 2017. p. 185-6 (#422 mail.ru Group), 186-7 (#423 ТОВ «Вконтакте» (VKontakte)), 187-8 (#424 ТОВ «В Контакті» (In Kontakte)) & 189 (#425 mail.ru Ukraine). This is a prohibition of Internet Service Providers (ISP) to provide access to the internet service «Mail.ru» (www.mail.ru) and social-oriented resources «Vkontakte» (www.vk.com) and «Odnoklassniki» (www. ok). Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
71. ^ [1] Archived 31 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine | RSF | 23 May 2017
72. ^ Russia's VKontakte closes office in Kyiv Archived 5 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine, UNIAN (17 June 2017)
73. ^ Alexander Marrow (3 December 2021). "CEO of Russia's VK resigns as state assumes control of internet firm". Reuters. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
74. ^ "Latvijā bloķēs sociālos tīklus "Vkontakte" un "Odnoklassniki"". Lsm.lv. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
75. ^ "Apple Removes Russian VK Apps From App Store in Response to UK Sanctions". MacRumors. 28 September 2022. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
76. ^ "Приложение VK пропало из App Store". rbc.ru (in Russian). 26 September 2022. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
77. ^ "Russia demands Apple explain after VK apps removed from App Store". Reuters. 28 September 2022. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
78. ^ Faife, Corin (26 February 2022). "The US has sanctioned the head of Russia's largest social network". The Verge. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
79. ^ "How the Kremlin Infiltrated Russia's Facebook". Wired UK. ISSN 1357-0978. Archived from the original on 29 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
80. ^ "The dark doings of Russia's Centre E". openDemocracy. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
81. ^ "2016-07-07 In 'kontakt' with the cops When Russian police go after Internet users, why do they target people on VKontakte almost exclusively?". Meduza. Archived from the original on 29 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
82. ^ "Госслужащим поручили перейти на мессенджер от VK до конца апреля". Sostav.ru (in Russian). 7 March 2023. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
83. ^ "У российских чиновников появится свой мессенджер почти за 1 млрд рублей". Banki.ru. 28 June 2023.
84. ^ Kontsarenko, Philipp (2 November 2015). "Фоторепортаж: Первый хакатон "ВКонтакте" — Соцсети на vc.ru". vc.ru. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
85. ^ ""Поиск пропавших котиков": приложение, которое ищет потерявшихся животных с помощью нейросетей — Meduza". Meduza (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
86. ^ "На Хакатоне "ВКонтакте" победили авторы приложения, помогающего выбрать маршрут в Эрмитаже". «Бумага» (in Russian). 23 October 2017. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
87. ^ Madhumita Venkataramanan (15 August 2012). "Europe's 100 hottest startups 2012: Moscow". Wired. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
88. ^ Константин Панфилов (21 August 2014). "Победителем конкурса стартапов Start Fellows стал мобильный сервис видеостриминга LiveCamDroid" (in Russian). VC.ru. Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
89. ^ Константин Панфилов (16 October 2014). "Победителями конкурса стартапов Start Fellows от "ВКонтакте" стали HTML Academy и "Попутчик"" (in Russian). VC.ru. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
90. ^ ""ВКонтакте" назвала нового получателя гранта Start Fellows" (in Russian). The Village. 15 July 2014. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
91. ^ "Пробуждение с гарантией" (in Russian). Kommersant. 11 June 2019. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
92. ^ "Победители Start Fellows получили 2,5 млн рублей от ВКонтакте". Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
93. ^ ""ВКонтакте" назвали победителей VK Cup" (in Russian). Tass. 2 November 2020. Archived from the original on 14 April 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
94. ^ vc.ru, Редакция (27 July 2015). "Фоторепортаж: "ВКонтакте" провела второй чемпионат по программированию VK Cup 2015 — Соцсети на vc.ru". vc.ru. Archived from the original on 13 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
95. ^ "VK Cup 2016 - Codeforces". Codeforces. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
96. ^ ""ВКонтакте" выплатила 2,5 миллиона рублей призёрам VK Cup 2017". Собака.ru. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
97. ^ a b ""ВКонтакте" завершит год вручением своей первой музыкальной премии". 15 December 2017. Archived from the original on 28 October 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
98. ^ "VK Music: Listen to songs and music online for free | VK". Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2019.
99. ^ "В Москве прошла премия VK Music Awards. Были названы 30 главных треков года". The-Flow.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
100. ^ "В Петербурге на выходных пройдет третий VK Fest". Российская газета (in Russian). 14 July 2017. Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 12 November 2018.

Literature

[edit]

• Friedrichsen, Mike; Mühl-Benninghaus, Wolfgang, eds. (2013). Handbook of Social Media Management. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-28897-5.

External links

[edit]

• Media related to Vkontakte at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website

v t e Social networking services
Personal	23snaps Amikumu anobii Are.na Ask.fm Badoo BeReal Bluesky BharatMatrimony Bondee Bumble Cara Clubhouse Cohost Convoz Cyworld Diaspora display Douban Draugiem.lv Facebook Foursquare City Guide Foursquare Swarm Friendica Gab Gapo Gas Gettr GNU social Hi5 Hive Social Huddles Idka Instagram IGTV IRC-Galleria Kuaishou Kumu Letterboxd Likee LiveJournal Jeevansathi.com Matrimony.com Marco Polo Mastodon The Meet Group Meetup MeWe Miaopai micro.blog Minds Mixi MX TakaTak My World@Mail.Ru Myspace Nextdoor Odnoklassniki Parler Peach Pinterest Pixnet Pleroma Plurk Promo.com Qzone Readgeek Renren Shaadi.com ShareChat Snapchat SNOW Spaces Tagged Tal Canal Threads TikTok Tinder Triller Truth Social Tuenti Tumblr TV Time Twitter Untappd Vero VK Weibo Whisper Xiaohongshu Yik Yak
Professional	Academia.edu Behance Brainly HCL Connections LinkedIn Moodle ResearchGate Solaborate Viadeo XING Yammer
Defunct	App.net AsianAve Avatars United Bebo Bolt BranchOut Capazoo Cloob eConozco Edmodo Ello Emojli eWorld Eyegroove FitFinder FriendFeed Friends Reunited Friendster Google+ Google Buzz Google Currents Grono.net Heello Hello Highlight Houseparty Hyves IdeaPlane iTunes Ping iWiW Jaiku Keek Koo Lifeknot LunarStorm Me2day Meerkat Miiverse MixBit Mobli Mugshot Multiply Musical.ly Natter Netlog NK.pl Orkut Path Periscope Pheed Piczo PlanetAll Posterous Pownce Qaiku Sciencescape (Metaα) SixDegrees.com Skyrock So.cl Spotify Live Spring.me Streetlife StudiVZ Surfbook Talkbits Taringa! tbh Tea Party Community Third Voice Tout tribe.net tvtag Vine Windows Live Spaces Wretch Xanga Yahoo! 360° Yahoo! Kickstart Yahoo! Mash Yahoo! Meme Yo
Services	Software comparison White-label Ning Wall.fm
Tools	Analysis software Diaspora Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Concepts	Attention inequality Confessions page Cybersectarianism Fediverse Online identity Small-world experiment Small-world network Social network Thirst trap User profile Virtual community list
Applications	Hospitality exchange service Mobile Online dating comparison Social network advertising Social network hosting service Social profiling
User interface	Activity stream Brand page Groups Hashtag Like button Online petitions Polling Reblogging Story
Implications	Issues Privacy concerns Problematic social media use Use in investigations Use in politics User gender differences
Protocols	ActivityPub AT Protocol Decentralized Social Networking Protocol Distributed Social Networking Protocol (defunct) Micropub Nostr OpenSocial (defunct) OStatus Pump.io XMPP

v t e Microblogging
Centralized	Facebook Fanfou Gab Gettr Hive Social LinkedIn Myspace Pillowfort Plurk Qzone Solaborate Truth Social Tumblr Twitter Viadeo VK Weibo XING
Decentralized	ActivityPub-compatible Friendica GNU social Mastodon micro.blog Misskey Pleroma Threads Bluesky AT Protocol diaspora identi.ca pump.io Nostr OpenMicroBlogging OStatus Twister
Defunct	App.net Edmodo Google Buzz Google+ Heello Jaiku Me2day Meme Migme Natter Parler Posterous Pownce Qaiku Tencent Weibo Tout
Features	Activity stream Backchannel Hashtag Lifestreaming Mention/Replies Reblogging
Comparison of microblogging and similar services