THE VERGE - Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian banks, energy and infrastructure companies, and several individual Russian elites. Among the sanctioned individuals is Vladimir Kiriyenko, CEO of VK Group, the parent company of Russia's biggest social network, VKontakte. While he isn't being sanctioned specifically for his work with the VK group, the result still forbids one of the country's most powerful tech executives from doing business with any US entity.
56 posts categorized "VKontakte"
The US Has Sanctioned Russia's Largest Social Network Head
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Russian Social Media Network Vkontakte to Introduce NFT Support
BITCOIN.COM - Russia's largest social media network, Vkontakte, has announced it will introduce support for blockchain and NFTs. The crypto technologies will be incorporated into the platform's scheme to monetize user content and copyright protection.
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VK Expands 2-factor Authentication With VK Protect Security Program
TELECOM PAPER - VK is launching a new program designed to protect users and their data – VK Protect. As part of VK Protect, the company has expanded two-factor authentication. The tool is now available across all VK ecosystem services that require authorization through a single account and when visiting third-party partner sites and applications.
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Russia's VK Appoints Son of Kremlin Insider as New CEO
THE MOSCOW TIMES - Vladimir Kiriyenko will become the CEO of VK Group, which controls VKontakte and a number of other internet businesses, "effective immediately." Kiriyenko was formerly vice president at Rostelecom, a state-run telecommunications firm. His father, Sergei Kiriyenko, is first deputy chief of staff in the Presidential Administration.
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Instagram, VKontakte Lead in Social Network Mobile Data Traffic in Russia
TELECOMPAPER - Instagram is the most popular social network in Russia, according to a study. The data traffic share of Instagram totaled 35.5%, VKontakte followed with 28%, and the share of TikTok amounted to 24%. Each Russia-based user of Instagram uses an average 197 MB of data traffic daily, while VKontakte users average 107 MB, and TikTok users 225 MB daily.
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Gazprom Gains Control of Russia's Top Social Network
THE MOSCOW TIMES - Russia's Gazprom has gained control of the country's largest social media network, VKontakte, following a string of deals to buy out Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov from the platform's holding company. VK's CEO has also resigned as part of sweeping changes that boost Kremlin's control of VKontakte.
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Russia's Mail.ru Rebrands as VK, Eyeing Boost for Online Services
REUTERS - Russian internet group Mail.ru was rebranding as VK, the initials of its social network VKontakte, and would rename a number of its services to incorporate the new brand. Dobrodeev said the rebrand would not impact the operational structure of the business.
by Anna Rzhevkina & Alexander Marrow
See full article at Nasdaq
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Odnoklassniki Offers Speech-to-text Messages
TELECOMPAPER - Russian social network Odnoklassniki has started offering speech-to-text messaging. The service recognizes voice messages and covers them to text by default, based on AI and neural networks technology designed by sister company VKontakte. Voice messages in the Russian language for up to 60 mins can be converted.
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First Social Network With Voice Control: Marusia Is Now on the VK App
MARKET SCREENER - May 27 - VK has become the first social network to integrate a voice assistant added to its app. With Marusia, many VK services have become even more accessible and easy to use. The Marusia voice assistant will become one of the key unifying elements across the entire VK ecosystem. Marusia can be found in the Hub tab on the VK app. To start chatting with Marusia, a user has to click on the voice assistant icon. Over time, the variety of Marusia's skills will grow.
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VKontakte to Offer Free Video-conferencing for 2K Simultaneous Users
TELECOMPAPER - May 19 - Russian social network VKontakte plans to launch free video-conferencing for up to 2,048 call participants simultaneously. The option should be introduced this coming summer. The company claims that its VK Calls platform provides all the features commonly found in chargeable corporate video conference services and some additional features, all for free.
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Worki Integrates With Popular Russian Social Network
AIM GROUP - Mar 15 - Worki, a recruitment vertical owned by Mail.ru, has become part of the popular Russian social network, VK. The vertical also changed its name to VK Jobs. Worki is in the top-three when it comes to the number of active resumes on the site. This makes it highly appealing to recruiters. If recruiters operate a group on VK, they can post paid advertisements from VK Jobs and receive 50-95% of the revenue from the ad. There are currently ~100k groups whose owners can benefit from the opportunity. VK Jobs has also opened its database of seven million resumes to recruiters. If a recruiter wants to reach out to a candidate, they can pay a fee of $0.61 to receive contact information.
by Alina Zaites
See full article at AIM Group
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VKontakte Urged to Suppress Involvement of Minors Into Wrongdoing
RAPSI - Jan 22 - Russia's communications agency Roskomnadzor has sent a request to the management of VKontakte social network demanding to immediately suppress involvement of minors into unauthorized rallies. Based on the demand of the Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor asked the social network to prevent distribution of information involving children into illegal actions dangerous for their lives.
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VKontakte Reports 50% Increase in Posts This Year
TELECOMPAPER - Dec 29 - Russian social network VKontakte said that the number of messages sent on the network jumped by 50% YOY in 2020. ~15B messages are sent daily by the users. The user base of the social network's call service soared by 22%. The user base of the VK Pay payment service lifted by 50% to 16M.
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Youla and vKontakte Launched A Classified in The Social Network
AIM GROUP - Dec 14 - Youla, the No. 2 general marketplace in Russia, has teamed up with vKontakte to offer a marketplace feature on the social network. The feature is similar to Facebook's Marketplace offering. From now, listings published on Youla or in the Listings section on vKontakte will be available on both platforms. Sellers will be able to add listings to relevant groups on vKontakte. ~4k groups have already opted into the feature. The classifieds listings are currently available on the VK mobile app. The company plans to add it to the desktop version soon.
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Vkontakte Gave Statistics on Hate Speech Blocking
PLEDGE TIMES - Aug 31 - The social network Vkontakte has published statistics on blocking hate speach according to the new norms of the platform. Over the past week, 142 communities have been blocked under the new rules. Vkontakte blocks those who systematically post offensive content or incitement to violence.
by Bhavi Mandalia
See full article at Pledge Times
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