45 Popular Russian Websites

Oftentimes when we optimize and promote client websites on the RuNet, we do so from a linear perspective and don’t take into account how Russian users spend their time online.

We look at the direct competition to our clients, and perhaps consider things like Vkontakte, but we don’t always fully understand and consider the plethora of online communities, classifieds websites, market places, or listing sites that users frequent.

In this article I’m going to list 45 popular Russian websites that you should be aware of when optimizing your clients for any form of ecommerce, SaaS, or service based vertical.

1) Avito.ru, a classified ads service. Created by the Russian Mail.Ru Group, one of Russia’s largest Internet companies.

2) Yandex.ru — marketplace for goods and services with search and price comparison features. The company was founded as a search engine in 1997 by Arkady Volozh and has grown into a large Russian multinational technology company (in terms of revenue), one of the leaders in Internet technologies, media, and telecommunication industries in Russia with global reach. The company’s mission is to provide an unbiased product rating – true to the reality and “by the people, for the people”. Yandex is one of the largest companies listed on Russian stock exchanges.

3) Ozon.ru — online shopping service with price comparison features, launched in 2001 by Russia’s Mail.Ru Group (enlarged by another major internet company, a Russian online media group SUP Media).

4) Avtoshina.ru — automobile classifieds portal.

5) Odnoklassniki.ru — social network for classmates.

6) Vkontakte.ru — online social networking service with photo and video hosting, messenger, diary and file sharing features. The company is owned by Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

7) Tixati.ru — software for uploading and downloading of multimedia content (movies, video clips, sound files, presentations etc.) via broadband internet access.

8) Videomama.com — video portal based on the open source software OpenMeetings developed by software developer Alexey Kuznetsov (it supports peer-to-peer videoconferencing).

9) Smolos.ru — online music store.

10) Excitea (Russian: Экскимо). — a social networking and entertainment portal that offers a free, ad-supported service and a premium commercial version. Also known as ProSiebensat-1, it is reputed to be Russia’s most popular social network of all time.

11) Ussr.ru — the largest Russian auction website, founded in 1995 in Saint Petersburg by Dmitry Tyapkin and Sergey Yegorov.

12) Ranneydlya. com — a Russian online shopping website for fashion and accessories.

13) Zwitty.ru — an online marketplace owned by Mail.Ru Group, which sells mobile phones, televisions, washing machines and other appliances.

14) Gag.ru — an online community for exchanging jokes and making new jokes.

15) Amkon.ru — a Russian online marketplace for buying and selling cars, residential properties, spare parts, motorcycles, jewelry etc. The company was founded in 1999 by brothers Roman and Dmitri Danilchenko.

16) Nest-nest.com – a classified ads service launched in 2002 and developed by mail.ru group (Russian: магазин mail Рус).

17) Mir-media. ru — an online classified ads service, mainly for used cars.

18) New-magazine.ru – a Russian news and entertainment website, founded in 1997 by the Moscow News weekly newspaper.

19) Ooooh! — a Russian speaking social network and a local search engine that was launched on July 4, 2009 by Mail.Ru Group.

20) VKokteil.ru — a Russian social network for ex-college students and graduates, largely based on Facebook features (although comparison is not entirely correct).

21) Kupim-net. ru — online classified ads service for selling new and used cars, motorcycles, spare parts and accessories, as well as real estate (apartments, land plots), built-in house appliances storage facilities.

22) Lyktan.ru — an online classifieds website for selling smartphones, mobile phones and tablet computers, with internet access. The site was established in 2001 by Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

23) Online-shop.ru — a Russian online marketplace for buying and selling any objects, with search and price comparison features. The site was created by the Mail.Ru Group in 2001 (privatized in 2015).

24) Puztekhnina.ru — an online marketplace for selling used cars, launched in 2002 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

25) Ruslania.ru – a Russian language classified ads service founded on March 14, 2008, whose target audience is young people and students of various schools, colleges and universities throughout Russia.

26) Shop24. ru — the largest online retail website in Russia (ranking number 1 among all E-commerce sites in Russia).

27) Supmedia.ru — an online classified ads service that was launched on November 16, 2001, by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

28) Truck-trader.com — one of the largest Russian Internet auction websites for selling vehicles and auto spare parts and accessories, with search, price comparison and e-mail notification features.

29) Sobytiya.ru — a Russian online classifieds portal for selling anything, created in 2008 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

30) Shpakovskoe.net — an online marketplace owned by mail group for buying and selling of new and used cars, with price comparison features, launched in 2014.

31) Services-people.ru – an online marketplace for services, launched in 2001 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

32) Skidki-magazin. ru — an online marketplace for buying and selling things, launched in 2002 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

33) Russianshops.com — a classified ads website for buying and selling new and used cars, launched in 2005 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

34) Shopping24.ru – online retail website owned by mail group that designed to sell everything from pets to tablet computers and real estate, with search features, price comparison services etc. Launched in 2011.

35) Shtuz.net — Russian online marketplace for buying and selling of used cars, motorcycles, spare parts and accessories. The site was launched in 2002 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

36) Szkola.ru – an online book rental portal launched in 2001 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

37) Smart-shop.ru – a Russian online marketplace for selling new and used cars, launched in 2007 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

38) Snob-shop. ru — a Russian online marketplace for selling clothes and accessories, launched in 2011 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

39) Snaiper.ru – an online marketplace for buying and selling mobile phones, launched by the Mail.Ru Group in 2007.

40) Snimki-magazin. ru — an online marketplace for buying and selling new and used cars, motorcycles, spare parts etc., launched in 2002 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

41) Spoxi. ru – Russian speaking social network founded by CEO Eduard Kovgan in 2015. Its primary focus is to connect people to the products they want, by giving them access to a wide range of stores and the ability to purchase goods in one click.

42) Taxi-info.ru — an online marketplace for hire-car companies and taxi drivers, launched by the Mail.Ru Group in 2002 (privatized in 2015).

43) Trejdakovyzakaz.ru — a classified ads service for buying and selling new and used cars, motorcycles, spare parts etc., launched in 2011 by the Mail.Ru Group (privatized in 2015).

44) Tc.ru — a Russian language online portal with search features and it has its own news agency.

45) Rzd-gids.ru – local business directory and guide (Russian: Городской регистрационный документ).

Dan Taylor
Dan Taylor is an experienced SEO consultant and has worked with brands and companies on optimizing for Russia (and Yandex) for a number of years. Winner of the inaugural 2018 TechSEO Boost competition, webmaster at HreflangChecker.com and Sloth.Cloud, and founder of RussianSearchNews.com.