How video-sharing platform VKontakte is trying to lure Russians away from YouTube by stealing their content and cloning their appearance – Meduza

Since the Kremlin began throttling YouTube viewing speeds in Russia this summer, two homegrown platforms have been vying to take its place: VKontakte's Rutube and VK Video. While Rutube quickly morphed into a tool for state propaganda, VK Video has taken a more subtle approach, attempting to replicate YouTube's appeal to viewers cut off from the American platform. To achieve this, it mimics YouTube's design, re-uploads its videos, actively recruits Russian YouTubers and turns a blind eye to pirated content. Journalists from the independent broadcaster “Verstka” investigated how effective this strategy was and what hurdles the service still faces. Meduza summarizes their key findings.

In its early days, the Russian social network VKontakte was widely viewed as little more than a Facebook clone. Now his video-sharing platform VK Video intentionally mirrors YouTube. The similarity goes beyond just the interface: VK's familiar blue logo has turned red, and the tile layout and menu on the left side of the platform is strikingly similar to YouTube's design. VK Video has also been actively re-uploading content from its American counterpart – so much so that YouTube has blocked it.

These “rented” videos span all categories: trending videos and short films, random clips and massive archives uploaded by ViDuck, a bot that has transferred tens of thousands of videos, including reviews, sports games, lectures, old music videos and more. This wave began long before Russian authorities began slowing YouTube playback speeds in the country this summer. Between 2022 and 2023, ViDuck alone re-uploaded 1.2 million videos.

The bitter truth is that events in Russia also affect your life. Help Meduza continue to bring news from Russia to readers around the world by setting up a monthly donation.

Much of this content transfer violates copyright law, which is probably even encouraged by the VK administrators. VK Video, for example, streams current foreign films in Russian for free, including American films Inside Out 2 And Poor thingswhich have not been officially released or licensed in Russia.

VK Video not only steals content, but also tries to attract Russian-speaking vloggers. While exclusive deals are rare, some YouTubers have migrated entirely. Popular vloggers such as Vlad A4 (2.6 million VK video subscribers), Azamat Musagaliyev (1.5 million subscribers) and SHASTUN (867,000 subscribers) have encouraged their followers to switch to VK, saying they have exclusive content there have. However, they continue to update their YouTube channels, albeit less frequently. Meanwhile, other top creators from Russia are releasing similar content on both platforms at roughly the same rate.

Play catch-up

As of September 2024, media monitoring website Medialogia listed 20 of the top Russian-speaking vloggers on VK Video and 21 on YouTube (due to a tie). Only two channels appeared on both lists – Dima Maslennikov and LIVITIN. Even the creators of VK's most popular channels generally have far fewer subscribers than on YouTube. Among the top 40 vloggers, only six have a larger following on VK.

The engagement metrics paint a similar picture: Russian-language YouTube outperforms VK Video by 33 percent. Despite this, VK Video's subscriber base is steadily growing, although it is unclear whether this growth is completely organic or involves inflated numbers. Within a week, the top VK channels recorded an average increase of 18,200 new subscribers.

To attract creators, VK plans to offer a grant of 100 million rubles ($1 million) to vloggers with over 1,000 followers, with a maximum prize of 5 million rubles ($51,000) per creator. After YouTube suspended monetization for Russian users, it's better than nothing, but YouTube creators can still earn through direct advertising deals. In September 2024, VK launched its own monetization program that promises YouTubers 50-80 percent of advertising revenue. In comparison, YouTube offers creators 55 percent but only requires 500 subscribers to participate, while VK Video's threshold is 5,000 subscribers.

However, even popular YouTubers still face monetization challenges, a representative of a major advertising agency that works with VK told Verstka. VK promised the migrated YouTubers high income provided they brought a large audience with them. Still, audience growth fell short of VK's expectations, and creators relied on heavy ad placements to avoid losses.

Gleb Belichenko, executive producer of the Novaya Gazeta Europe YouTube channel, warns against underestimating viewers' content loyalty to the platform. “Every episode of [the Russian-language Internet comedy show] What happened next? was a media phenomenon that caused a huge stir. Fans couldn't wait to watch it. Would they switch from YouTube to VK for their favorite show? Yes, they would.”

According to media research firm Mediascope, YouTube's monthly reach in Russia fell by almost three million from July to September, while VK's grew by 800,000. Mediascope hasn't made it clear how it accounts for users who may be accessing YouTube via VPN, but even so, YouTube's reach still exceeds VK by 2.4 million.

A problem of access

From a technical point of view, VK Video is quite user-friendly. Unlike the free version of YouTube, VK Video does not interrupt videos with ads inserted on the platform. The content is sorted into categories like “Auto,” “Travel,” and “Tech,” while the mobile app includes a dedicated button for “Clips” (short videos similar to YouTube Shorts) and offers personalized recommendations. Still, not everything goes smoothly: videos sometimes appear in the wrong categories, clips often load in poor quality, and many popular channels don't have time-stamped segments, making navigation difficult.

One of VK Video's strengths is its interactive content, which allows creators to engage viewers more directly. For example, in some videos, viewers can click to select the protagonist's next move. Each VK video channel also serves as a community page where creators can post photos, giveaways and clips, helping to build a built-in fan base where followers can interact, vote on upcoming topics and feel closer to their favorite creators.

However, these features alone probably wouldn't have been enough to drive VK Video's audience growth without disrupting its main outside competitor. Search trends on Google and Yandex suggest that interest in VK Video only began to increase after Roskomnadzor, Russia's federal censorship agency, began slowing down YouTube playback speeds in late July 2024. In August, VK Video's viewership grew 2.2 times compared to July. By early September, YouTube's loading speed in Russia had increased almost tenfold. Mobile access remains mostly stable, but many home internet providers have reduced YouTube speeds to unusable levels, making access impossible without a VPN. Google, YouTube's parent company, reports that over a third of Russian users have been unable to reliably access the platform since August. Providers in Russia are required to install traffic control devices that make it difficult for users to bypass restrictions.

“Platforms are becoming increasingly popular primarily due to their accessibility and user-friendliness – the 'one-click system',” explains Belichenko. “You open the YouTube app and its intelligent feeds, algorithms and interface guide you exactly where you need to go. Everything was working great until YouTube slowed down. A broken YouTube is no longer a one-click system; It's two clicks: YouTube and a VPN. But VK doesn’t need a VPN.”

YouTube is primarily an entertainment platform, with categories like “music” and “entertainment” accounting for 42 percent of searches. The popular Russian channels there often focus on challenges, personal vlogs or games. VK Video focuses even more on simple, accessible topics like relationships and humor, with comedy and family content leading the trending categories. The top channels are about everyday routines, family life and weddings – government-related propaganda, however, rarely makes it into the trends.

This represents a notable difference between VK Video and Rutube, another YouTube “alternative” supported by the Russian authorities. While Rutube features prominent government propaganda, VK Video's top spots contain relatively little pro-state material. Instead, most pro-war content comes from community-driven channels rather than official sources, giving it a more grassroots feel.

Unlike Rutube, which openly promotes propaganda, VK Video appears to be more focused on building a user-friendly YouTube alternative for Russian audiences – something that feels comfortable and familiar as access to the American platform becomes increasingly restricted, but yet remains in an area that the Kremlin can control.