AOL Beats Google In Russia

The average Russian Internet user went online 13 days in February, spent an average of 82 minutes per day online, and viewed 2,322 pages of content during the month according to comScore World Metrix.

Russian language search engine Yandex reached 62 percent of the Russian online audience, making it the leading Web property in February, followed by Mail.Ru sites (51% reach), Rambler Media (49 percent reach), AOL (42 percent reach) and Google Sites (41% reach).

AOL properties also were ahead of Google Sites for time spent. The average minutes per visitor for the month on AOL was 178, while visitors to Google Sites averaged 58 minutes for the month.

Social networking is popular in Russia with a few social networking sites ranking among the top properties. Odnoklassniki.Ru was the seventh most visited property with an audience reach of 30 percent, while Vkontake.Ru ranked just behind. Vkontake.Ru saw solid engagement of its users, who spent an average of 689 minutes on that site during the month.

Yandex led all search properties with 47. 4 percent of all searches conducted in Russia, followed by Google sites (31.2%), Rambler Media (9.7%), Mail.Ru Sites (7%), and Yahoo Sites (1.3%).

“The Russian Internet market has been experiencing rapid development, with its audience growing 25 percent during the past year,” said Linda Boland Abraham, comScore Executive Vice President.

“Several Russian Internet brands are leading the way, so it’s clear that there are strong opportunities for Internet-based businesses as this market continues to expand.”