MySpace Is Doing Better Than Expected in Russia

When MySpace launched a localized version in Russia, tons of people were very skeptic about its future with some of the Russian experts predicting that MySpace only has chances for growth of the Russian-language audience if the company spends at least $2-$3 million a year on marketing and promotion. The explanation for skepticism (my own one included) was simple: Russia already has plenty of social networks of its own with some of them gaining truly mainstream popularity.

Now that MySpace has been working in Russia for a few months the local MySpace team in Moscow explains that they are very happy with the growth rate of the Russian-speaking audience of the social network. I have just read an interview with the MySpace Russia CEO Alexander Turkot published by one of the major Russian technology blogs and there are some things worth noting about MySpace growth in Russia.

First of all, the potential users in Russia have not been exposed to any overwhelming promotional campaign that was supposed to be needed for growth. In fact, I have never seen a single ad for the social network myself here – neither online, nor on TV or anywhere else at that. In fact, the head of the Russian office mentioned that their promotional budget is lower than the one initially recommended by experts by an order of magnitude. But it did not prevent the network from growth of the Russian-speaking audience anyway: right now MySpace has 350 thousand Russian users registered with the plans to increase the number of active users in 2009 to 1.3-1.5 million. Besides, revenue forecast is also positive enough: the Russian part of the network is supposed to earn from $5 million to $6 million in 2009.

The niche that MySpace has chosen in Russia is building a universal content platform combining various types of user-generated content with professional content. And the key to success is in free use of any content that is hosted by MySpace on any profile or blog within the network – as stipulated by MySpace ToS. A very strong selling point that MySpace has here is in the number of content agreements with various record labels, TV networks and other media outlets – and this is supposed to ensure that users and visitors will be happy to visit MySpace at least to consume this content legally and for free.

I know perfectly well that Russian users rarely care about copyright and various forms of copyright violation by stealing music and videos wherever possible is something of a national hobby here. But the local Russian team of MySpace seems to be very positive about the demand for such legal content consumption and distribution in Russia and I can only hope they will succeed and will teach Russian users that it can be equally fun to consume content legally.