Russian Social Networking Site VKontakte Eyes Chinese Ad Market

Foreign social networking sites are effective channels for Chinese companies to reach overseas shoppers. Although Facebook is still inaccessible in mainland China, the company is gradually building a presence here. It has set up an office in Beijing to sell ads to Chinese companies, helping them to establish their brands abroad.

VKontakte (VK), the top social networking site in Russian-speaking countries, likewise has its eye on attracting Chinese advertisers to its platform. The company announced Tuesday the opening of its marketing branch in Beijing and the cooperation with Chinese mobile app marketing service YeahMobi.

As Russia’s answer to Facebook, the St Petersburg-based company has registered more than 250 million users and has over 100 million daily active users. Some 67% of users are in Russia, the rest coming from other Russian-speaking eastern European countries. The site is now available in 44 languages.

What you get

Full access to all premium content and our full archives

Members'-only newsletters

Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events

Direct access to the TechNode newsroom