Social Media, Games, and Music: Online Preferences of Russians under 18

Brand Analytics, the Russian media space analytics service, analyzed 1.78 billion Russian-language messages and found out preferences of youth under 18 years of age.

Who Can Be Interested in This Audience?

Most often, when setting advertising campaigns, we put an 18+ sign and exclude teenage audience. It is obvious that for some industries this audience is really not target at all like, for instance, for property sale companies. It is unlikely that a teenager will be interested in buying an apartment (and he or she will not be able to do it on his or her own under law). However, for other industries like online games or beauty, teenagers can become a pretty much one of the key segments of the target audience.

Areas of interest of teenagers (14-18 years old) chop around: they keep an eye on trends, popular games and start making decisions on their own and make their choice. During this time, it is of special importance to be on the same page with them and deliver a message via the most popular channels. So, let’s move to the results of the study by Brand Analytics.

Top 25 Resources Most Quoted by Youth under 18

Brand Analytics found out resources most quoted by social media users under 18 years of age. In the study, quoting means a full or short link to a respective site. To find out the top requested sites, we analyzed 1.78 billion Russian-language messages published in social media in August 2018.

Dominance of social media in the upper rating part proves that the primary environment for youth to be present and communicate is social media. It is interesting that top three—VK, YouTube, and Instagram—clearly have a head start on the pursuers. Facebook, even having taken the 4th place, is falling behind Instagram multi-fold, at that being the most adult platform—the share of young authors here is only 0.6%.

Please note that, despite of constant talks about the successes and growth of Instagram, among young people it gives way to YouTube that is in demand of game lovers. Quite tellingly, Telegram (t.me) took the fifth place and almost caught up with Facebook. It is not likely that the messenger blocking affected its use for real. And public Telegram channels are not all over about politics either.

Top 10 Websites Popular among Audience under 18

To find out interests of various age groups, Brand Analytics experts analyzed shares of authors under 18 years old among all users who quoted sites from the rating. Top 5 most youth-loved sites among all rating participants look this way: Discord (messenger for gamers), Rhyme (youth music website), Steamcommunity (gaming community), Twitch (streaming platform), and Skype (telecommunications application).

There is probably only one surprise here—Skype’s fifth place. In general, its use is going down, but in the gaming environment it is still of current interest. Due to a drop in the mature audience, the already aged Skype hit the top of youth sites. However, this is not forever either. Leader in Top 5 is Discord messenger. Having started in 2015, as planned by developers, it should supersede Skype at the end of the day—and this is what we can see now.

Among the websites preferred by youth, the most aged ones in the rating are facebook.com, zen.yandex.ru, ria.ru. After all, the news and Facebook where it is discussed is not a youth territory.

Source: Brand Analytics, 2019

What is of interest for youth under 18

• Gaming websites. Among them, only two are actually games, all others are sites for streamers, donations, and buying gaming supplies.
• Media websites. Did you think that your children are out of the public agenda? This is wrong. Moreover, popular sources among youth are not only pikabu.ru, but also RIA Novosti.
• Messengers. Apart from popular Telegram, Discord and Skype mentioned above, Top 25 also includes WhatsApp even though it is not engaged in the gaming process at all. This is the consequence of the messenger’s popularity in all age groups.
• Online shops. Internet purchases are a trend not only for youth—they simply could adjust to online shopping faster than others. It is gratifying to know that both Avito and Youla worthily compete with AliExpress.
• Music websites. If this is not communication, games, or news, then it is music. It is notable that Rhyme.ru, the Russian music project, is of much higher interest for youth than Soundcloud, the worldwide-popular website.

TikTok: Young and Promising

The top of the websites from Brand Analytics that we considered above did not include TikTok, but we cannot give it a miss.

Firstly, it shows just fabulous dynamics in the Russian market: while in 2018 it was used by only 1.5 million Russians who spent on it only 13 minutes a day, already in May 2019 teenagers brought it to the top with 8 million people a month who spend on it 39 minutes daily on average!

Secondly, the main part of the social network’s audience (40%) is under 18 years old. That is why brands can safely use TikTok to build marketing communication with youth.

Recommendations

When planning and setting up an advertising campaign, how and by what means you can attract audience under 18. Do not miss your chance to earn trust of young audience even today because tomorrow they can become your major buyers.

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