Increasingly more Russians are getting into the global Net

Almost three quarters of Russian households have access to the Internet, and almost half of them use the Web daily. 43% of the respondents access the Net with mobile devices, 74% actively use social networks, and every fifth person uploads their own content to websites, experts of the HSE Institute or Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge found out in the framework of the Monitoring of Information Society project.

The spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a key factor of innovation-based development of the economy and an essential component of the quality of life, noted the monitoring study authors Galina Kovaleva, Valentina Polyakova, and Elena Chernovich.

The Internet is rapidly finding its way into Russian families’ everyday life. While in 2005 only 9% of households had Internet access, by 2014 this share had grown to about 70%. The fastest growth was noted in 2009–2011: the share of people who could access the World Wide Web grew by 8–12 percentage points a year. In 2013, the share of households with the Internet access also grew significantly – by 9%.

Table 1. Households with the Internet access in 2014* (% of the total number of households)

	Internet access	Internet access from PC	Broadband internet access
Total	69.9	67.0	64.1
Urban area	74.5	72.4	70.2
Rural area	55.6	50.5	45.1

* preliminary data

Source: Rosstat

Despite these results, in terms of households’ Internet access Russia still lags 5 percentage points behind the average OECD level (75% in 2011), and 11 percentage points behind the EU (81% in 2014).

Two thirds of Russians aged 15–72 (67%) had accessed the Internet during the previous three months, and more than half of the respondents had done so practically every day.

Table 2. Internet usage by population in 2014 (% of the total number of people in the respective group)

	Total number of people aged 15–72	Residents of		Age, years
		Urban area	Rural area	15–22	23–34	35–44	45–54	55–64	65–72
Daily or almost daily	52	56	39	85	74	57	39	21	7
At least once a week, but not every day	13	14	12	7	12	19	18	12	5
At least once during the previous three months, but no more than once a month	2	2	3	1	2	3	3	3	1
More than three months ago	7	7	7	3	5	7	9	9	8
Never accessed the Internet	26	21	39	4	7	14	31	55	79

Source: HSE calculations based on Rosstat data

In 2014, the share of daily Internet users grew by 4 percentage points compared with 2013. Internationally, relevant Russian figures are close to the Polish ones and to those of some of the Southern European countries (Portugal, Greece), while remaining almost twice as low as the leading countries’ figures.

A little less than half of the users (43%) accessed the Internet with mobile devices. Mobile networks were used more often than Wi-Fi ones (31% compared to 23%). In 2013–2014, the share of population who used mobile devices to access the Internet outside of their homes or workplace grew from 31 to 43%. The share of people who accessed the Web with portable computers has grown especially significantly (from 10 to 23%).

The most popular internet practice is communication in social networks. The share of users who access such networks for communication, self-expression, and other purposes grew by 8% compared with 2013, and reached 74%. Meanwhile, professional networks are used by just 3% of the Internet audience.

The level of email usage remained practically unchanged since 2013 (39% of the population). Probably, if people don’t have to use email (e.g. for work or study purposes), they prefer social networks which offer a much wider functionality.

Two fifths (40%) of the Internet audience had used the Net to make voice and video calls during the previous thee months. Communication through instant messaging applications (chats, ICQ, QIP, etc.) is less popular (11%).

Another modern trend is using online environment. Primarily it involves downloading films, images, music, watching videos and listening to music online (50%). Notably, a significant proportion of users contribute their own content to the web: 20% of them uploaded personal files (books / articles / journals, photographs, music, videos, applications etc.) for open access.

Sources:

• Eurostat database / Eurostat electronic resource. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database (last accessed on: 10.04.2015).

• Results of federal statistical monitoring of population’s usage of information technologies / Rosstat electronic resource. http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/business/it/fed_nabl-croc/index.html (last accessed on: 10.04.2015).

• NRU HSE (2015а) Information Society Indicators: 2015. Data Book. Moscow: HSE.

• NRU HSE (2015b) Information Society: Russian Population’s Demand for Information and Communication Technologies / Gulnara Abdrakhmanova, Leonid Gokhberg, Galina Kovaleva et al. Moscow: HSE.

• Key OECD ICT Indicators / OECD electronic resource. http://www.oecd.org/internet/ieconomy/oecdkeyictindicators.htm (last accessed on: 10.04.2015).