‘A drop from half a million to fifty’: bloggers get lost on Telegram

How Tatar-Malai and Alina stayed on Instagram*

Tatarstan bloggers began to lose their audience when migrating from their Instagram* and YouTube accounts to the domestic VK and Telegram platforms. Although search engines, when querying consumers, give priority to content from Russian resources, it is impossible for well-known bloggers to reach the previous level of views. As a result, the number of subscribers of rated authors in Telegram barely reaches 1,500-2,000 views, while Instagram* retains an impressive 150,000-200,000 reader communities in terms of subscribers. The difference in audience coverage between Russian and foreign platforms scares them a lot.

“Telegram accepts me hard. I tried to run my own channel — there were only one and a half thousand subscribers — this is about nothing," Rinat Galiakhmetov, the blogger of Tatar-Malai from the Mamadysh district of the Republic of Tatarstan, shared with Realnoe Vremya.

Almost 10 years ago, he was the first to start blogging in Tatar on Instagram*, attracting 143,000 subscribers from Russia and foreign countries. Most often, he talks about relationships in Tatar families, village life and posts short videos. Due to a large difference in audience reach, another well-known Tatarstan blogger and public figure Alina Gimaltdinova continues to run her own Instagram channel*, with 254,300 subscribers. She yet does not risk to move to Telegram.

Famous blogger Rustam Nabiyev, who lost both legs after a collapse of army barracks, has not achieved much progress in Telegram either. Since then, he regularly talks about how he brings up two beautiful daughters with his wife, inspiring subscribers not to be afraid of difficulties. Did he notice the difference in audience reach on the platforms? “In different ways: there are drawdowns both on Instagram* and on Telegram," he wrote.

Tatarstan Minister of Digital Development Airat Khairullin sees nothing wrong with that many bloggers have reduced the number of views due to the transition from foreign sites such as Youtube to domestic ones.

“Patience! It's just temporary difficulties," the head of the department said at a press conference dedicated to the upcoming Kazan Digital Week forum next week.

The minister is actively developing his own Telegram channel, having curtailed his work on Instagram* 3 years ago. “Instagram* is a very good product in terms of technology. But from an ideological point of view, this platform blocked the information agenda of the Russian authorities. A kind of censorship by the world government," he explained the reason for leaving the site in a conversation with Realnoe Vremya. He believes that Russian platforms can compensate for the losses of bloggers.

Nevertheless, the number of views on the VK social network (VK Videos) is still not impressive. Coverage coefficients remain low, promotion algorithms are unclear, Tatarstan bloggers share their observations. “But we are still switching to the VK network — there is no other alternative," Alina Gimaltdinova said. According to her, when migrating from one platform to another, she sees “a different efficiency”, which causes a “sad mood”. It doesn't work quickly to transfer traffic from Instagram* to new social networks, so bloggers continue to run the same channels, and their subscribers use a VPN.

The bulk of the subscribers of the Tatar-Malai blogger are women aged 45-55 who work in rural areas of Russia. “They don't want to switch to Telegram*, no matter how I try to 'transfer' them, they unsubscribe. Most likely, they do not perceive it as a social network, while Instagram* has a clear interface," he believes. Rinat Galiakhmetov believes that this network could be suitable for promoting music content, but it does not suit him.

“My page is not some funny videos, but stories from my personal life. Each of my subscribers knows where I come, how I relax. The most viewed stories are about how I build relationships with my parents, what we plant in the garden. Right now, subscribers are waiting for our second child to be born," he smiles.

“Revenues have fallen three to four times”

The drop in traffic has a negative impact on the income of bloggers building commercial integrations with advertisers. After the closure of the monetisation service on Instagram*, large federal advertisers left bloggers. According to Rinat Galiakhmetov, integration with federal retailers and mobile operators has ended.

“Although subscribers log in via VPN, but earnings, of course, have fallen. If views fall, advertisers leave," he was upset, but did not disclose what income the integration brought, referring to trade secrets, “I can't say specific figures, it's a trade secret, but revenues have fallen three to four times.

According to experts, advertisers choose bloggers with an audience coverage of 150-200 thousand people, and the price of integration is within one and a half to two rubles per view. And the adult audience is especially appreciated.

According to the head of the Ministry of Digital Development of the Republic of Tatarstan, Airat Khairullin, bloggers need to work on all sites to maintain the previous viewing figures. Bloggers themselves are not going to stop working on Instagram*.

Monetisation is also shut down on the YouTube video hosting service. By the end of August, the download speed of content on desktop computers may decrease by up to 70%, Alexander Khinshtein, the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, warned earlier in his Telegram channel. However, the slowdown will affect only the desktop version of the service and will not affect the mobile one, he clarified.

“The future fate of YouTube in Russia depends solely on itself. If the administration of the resource does not change its policy and does not begin to comply with our laws, nothing good awaits it here. Moreover, alternative platforms — RUTUBE, VK Video — are developing more than actively now," Khinstein said.

Ediny Offer is a new monetisation resource

Tatar-Malai didn't take off on YouTube, he gained about 6,000 subscribers there. The blogger considered it inappropriate to develop a channel on the platform. But his colleagues, who had a large audience on this video hosting site, began selling goods. Someone started selling drinks, energy drinks, someone started selling shampoo kits.

“Bloggers are starting to monetise not content, but goods, and they are actively engaged in brand promotion," he said.

The potential losses of Russian bloggers due to the shutdown of the monetisation of the YouTube service are estimated at up to 30 billion rubles per year, Dmitry Morkovkin, the associate professor of the Department of Economic Theory at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, said earlier. One of the Bashkir bloggers wrote that he could not recover about 700,000 rubles from YouTube over the past year.

At the same time, bloggers understand that disabling the monetisation function is due to political motives.

“A lot of foreign agents work on YouTube, they earn money by expressing their point of view. Disabling the monetisation feature will result in that they will be less. Of course, there is a political context here. The same can be said about Instagram*. This is normal, everyone understands that," Tatar-Malai argues.

However, bloggers are offered to switch to the NUUM video platform, where a new monetisation tool has been launched — Ediny Offer (Single Offer). The service should help bloggers return to the level of earnings from the affiliate program that was available during monetisation on YouTube in 2021. The Ediny Offer will calculate the author's earnings through the affiliate program, depending on the number of subscribers, views and the regularity of content release. The authors will have the opportunity to get from 10 to 200 thousand per video, the operator said in a statement. They are ready to keep the audit indicators for him. “NUUM is going to check the audience indicators of the blogger's sites, and after confirmation, the authors will have the opportunity to join the program, provided that the requirements for the amount of published content are met.” The program is available for bloggers with an audience of over 100,000 subscribers on the YouTube channel and published horizontal content lasting more than 10 minutes.

What is happening looks like bankruptcy

“This is, most likely, a pure marketing. None of my friends have found an equivalent Instagram* platform with clear promotion algorithms and effective monetisation resources," influencer Alina Gimaltdinova laments, who has launched a channel with 254,300 subscribers on this social network.

According to her assessment, bloggers' incomes have dropped significantly. “The VK network has low audience coverage coefficients, it is unclear how the algorithms work," she pointed out. “Advertising integrations have remained, but mainly with local companies. If earlier we could plan our income for the month ahead, now we are in a chaotic environment. It's sad when you put a lot of effort into creating a rating channel and suddenly, for reasons beyond your control, you move to other platforms. I would compare what is happening with bankruptcy.” According to other estimates, incomes have fallen from 500 thousand to 50 thousand rubles.

Meanwhile, president of the Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan Rifkat Minnikhanov considered it necessary to use the bloggers' resource to promote science. During a briefing at the Government House, he addressed them with the idea of popularising scientific achievements: “We think it's time, scientific bloggers should already appear.

To date, there are no scientific bloggers yet, the niche is free," he said.

The academic community has a negative attitude towards the activities of bloggers. “The successes of bloggers and influencers, who are becoming models of behaviour for young people, indicate serious problems in the public perception of education and intellectual work. If earlier knowledge and professionalism were highly appreciated, today many teenagers strive for “easy success”, because it's enough just to shoot on video how you grimace or unpack purchases and get millions of views. Popularisation of the success of the obviously uneducated undermines the authority of academic knowledge and educational institutions," Vladimir Legoyda, the head of the MGIMO Media Communications Department, wrote in his column for Kommersant.

*Instagram is owned by Meta, recognised as an extremist organisation in Russia, and its activities in the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited