Online shopping has become a new national leisure activity: for the first time, marketplaces have outperformed video platforms in terms of daily audience reach among Russian Internet users. Such conclusions are contained in a recent study by the Future Lab agency, which is referenced by RBC.
According to the data for July of this year, the palm still belongs to messengers, which attract 77% of the population every day. Social networks have gained a foothold in the second position with an indicator of 63%. A historic event took place in the third place of the rating: for the first time it was occupied by online trading platforms, which 46% of Russians visit every day. Video hosting sites, on the contrary, showed a decline, dropping to 37%.
This dynamic becomes even more significant when compared with the recent past. Back in December 2024, the situation was the opposite: video platforms were in third place with 47.9% coverage, while marketplaces were content with the fourth position and 45.9%.
The paradox is that, while losing in terms of the number of daily visits, video resources retain their leadership in terms of engagement. The average time a user spends watching videos per day is 34 minutes. This is significantly more than the sessions in online stores. According to statistics, people spend an average of 16 minutes a day on Wildberries, and 15 minutes on Ozone. Users spend the least amount of time on Yandex. Market and AliExpress — 9 and 8 minutes, respectively.
The all-Russian trend towards reducing video content consumption is also confirmed by data from the Starlink advertising group. During the year, the average daily coverage of video services decreased by 23%, and the average time spent in front of the screen decreased by almost half.
The key reason for the change in priorities is the transformation of consumer behavior. For a growing number of users, especially among young people, viewing storefronts and recommendation feeds on marketplaces has become an independent form of entertainment. People visit marketplaces not only to make targeted purchases, but also to browse through products, tag, add something to the viselists or shopping cart. As Denis Kuskov, head of TelecomDaily, notes, the army of such shopping visitors has grown by 30% over the past year. It is this audience that is gradually abandoning the habit of spending time watching videos, preferring more interactive and personalized leisure time on the pages of online stores.
