YaRus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Type of site | Social networking service |
|---|---|
| Available in | Russian |
| Headquarters | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Owner | AO Dialog |
| Created by | Dmitry Ilyukhin |
| URL | yarus |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Free |
| Launched | January 2021 |
| Current status | Defunct (June 30, 2023) |
ЯRUS (also written as YaRus) was a Russian social networking service developed by the company Ai Ti Servis (IT Service) and later owned by AO Dialog. The platform operated from January 2021 until its closure on June 30, 2023.[1]
ЯRUS was marketed as a "patriotic alternative" to Western social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Yandex Zen.[2] According to investigations by the Dossier Center, the project was funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group, starting from 2019.[3]
Development
ЯRUS was founded by entrepreneur Dmitry Ilyukhin from Nizhny Novgorod.[4] The platform was built upon analytics tools originally developed for YouTube and other services. In 2020, the development team relocated to Saint Petersburg, where the project reportedly came under Prigozhin's patronage.[4]
The first working version was assembled within a few months and launched in January 2021. The application was published on the App Store on February 9, 2021, under the company name "AI TI SERVIS, OOO". When ЯRUS was added to Google Play on March 21, 2021, the developer was listed as "AO Dialog".[5]
Growth after Western social media bans
ЯRUS gained significant attention in early 2022 following Russia's blocking of Facebook and Instagram after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6] In April 2022, the Russian Ministry of Digital Development recommended ЯRUS as one of the domestic alternatives to Meta services.[5]
According to TAdviser data, in November 2022, the number of ЯRUS users had increased 2.7 times compared to January 2022, with traffic volumes growing 5.4 times.[6]
Closure
On June 29, 2023, ЯRUS announced its closure, citing an "unstable political situation" that led to the suspension of financial support.[7] The closure came shortly after Prigozhin's abortive mutiny on June 23-24, 2023. The servers were shut down on June 30, 2023.[5]
At the time of closure, the platform claimed to have 12 million registered users,[7] though analysts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace expressed skepticism about these figures, noting that the platform would not have been shut down if it truly had such a large user base.[1]
Features
ЯRUS allowed users to create profiles, publish posts with photos, videos, and audio content, and included geotagging functionality. The platform's main distinguishing feature was "personal tiers" (yarusi), which allowed users to customize their content feeds based on their interests. The platform aggregated content from over 10,000 sources.[8]
The platform included a monetization system called "ЯRUS Coins" that allowed content creators to receive donations from users and convert them to real currency.
Funding and ownership
According to a March 2023 investigation by the Dossier Center, based on leaked documents from Prigozhin's business structures, ЯRUS had been created with Prigozhin's funding since 2019.[9] In 2021, Prigozhin reportedly invested 30-40 million rubles per month into the project, including advertising costs.[7]
The investigation also revealed that ЯRUS employed 63 people with a monthly payroll of 10 million rubles.[10] According to the Dossier Center, the platform had few genuine users, with most content being copied from other platforms by a dedicated 10-person team. Employees also generated artificial engagement through fake accounts.[10]
Prigozhin publicly promoted ЯRUS as an alternative to Western platforms. In statements published by his company Concord, he mentioned ЯRUS alongside Rutube and VKontakte as undervalued Russian video hosting services.[5]