Pikabu
Russian social network service
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pikabu (Russian: Пикабу) is a social news website from Russia with an emphasis on user-generated content, where users can submit links, images, gifs, and videos which will then be voted by the community.[2][3][4] It was founded on August 1, 2009 by Maxim Khryashchev to create a website similar to Reddit.[3]
| |
 | |
Type of site | Social news |
|---|---|
| Available in | Russian |
| Founded | August 1, 2009 |
| Country of origin | Russia |
| Owner | Altair Media[1] |
| Founder | Maxim Khryashchev |
| URL | https://pikabu.ru/ |
As of February 2023, Pikabu was the 22nd most visited website in Russia and the 283rd most visited website in world, according to Similarweb.[5]
History
The name of the website comes from the children's game Peekaboo.[2] The site was created based on a modified free Digg-like software.[6]
The Pikabu trademark was registered on July 25, 2016.[7]
Since September 2022, the site has been owned by the company of Alexey Nechayev, founder of the New People political party.[8][9]
Site overview
The site works on the principle of user-generated content. Users can post and comment on content that can be text, as well as images, gifs, and videos.[2][6][10] Comments on Pikabu are infinitely branching.[11]
Users can also cast positive and negative votes on a post or a comment, and depending on its score it can appear higher or lower on the site.[3]
Registration on the site is required to post and comment, viewing the site (except for NSFW content) is available for everyone.[3]
Monetization
In 2021, Pikabu generated revenue through advertising, such as programmatic ads, through direct sales, and through commissions from promo codes.[12] In 2016, Pikabu had no plans to introduce paid accounts as a revenue source.[6]
Controversies
On June 8, 2016, Roskomnadzor included a post on Pikabu with mock instructions "on how to turn into a fire fairy" from the animated series Winx Club in the Unified Register of Banned Sites.[13]
On November 8, 2017, the Ministry of Information and Communications of Kazakhstan blocked access to Pikabu within the country due to a post on the site recommending reading the book Удар русских богов (Udar russkikh bogov, transl. "Strike of the Russian Gods"), which is classified as extremist literature in Kazakhstan.[14][15] On November 10, after the site administrators removed the relevant content, the block was lifted.[16]
In February 2022, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin filed a lawsuit in a Moscow court against the owner of Pikabu after articles about his then-hidden connection to the Wagner Group.[17][18][19] The lawsuit is not available for publication under the law of 22.12.2008, No. 262-FZ (Article 15, paragraph 5).[17]
In early March 2022, the unencrypted user data of more than four million visitors to the site was discovered to have been leaked - 1 million of which were publicly available. The Pikabu administrators confirmed the data leak.[20][21][22]
On September 29, 2022, it was reported that the site had been acquired by Altair Media (Russian: АЛЬТАИР МЕДИА), a company founded by Russian politician Alexey Nechayev.[23][24] The media outlet Octagon.Media (Russian: Октагон.Медиа) valued the deal at between 1 and 2 billion rubles.[25] Alexey Nechayev and the press office of his political party, New People, denied his involvement in the deal.[26][23] The change of ownership sparked negativity and skepticism among Pikabu users, many of whom were concerned about the site's future.[27] Maxim Khryashchev, Pikabu's founder and longtime CEO of Pikabu, resigned from the company on September 1, 2023, after 14 years of leading the platform.[28][29][30]
On July 24, 2023, Pikabu's administrators announced an update to the site that changed the rating and scoring system, which led to widespread dissatisfaction among the site's users.[31]