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Odnoklassniki.ru - Russian classmates, but abroad?

Posted in All on January 5th, 2008 · 38 Comments

My last post about Odnoklassniki.ru became the most popular post on this blog.  It’s by far more popular than all the tips, links, and tutorials that I’ve written here, combined. It comes up pretty high in related Google search results and brings quite a bit of traffic. It also brings in some comments.

Most of the comments are from people who mistakenly assume that this blog is some sort of support forum for all the troubles they have with Odnoklassniki.ru, or, even, that this site IS in itself Odnoklassniki.ru.  I am trying to limit those comments, since they don’t belong here.  On the other hand though, there are some really insightful comments.

For example, Gennadiy Zaretskiy has recently posted a comment with the link to this article. Here is what caught my attention:

Foreign users constitute a significant share of the project ‘Odnoklassniki’ audience. According to Mr. Popkov, about 20% of the traffic comes from abroad.

Wow! “20% of the traffic comes from abroad“.  That seems like a lot.  Odnoklassniki.ru web site is in Russian.  Only Russian-speaking folks can make use of it.  Also, the whole topic of the classmates is tied very much into specifically Russian users.  So, does that mean that about 20% of computer literate (at least to some deree), educated (at least to some degree) young (mostly) people either live, study, or work outside of Russia?

That. Seems. Like. A. Lot. 

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38 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Alexey Yudichev // Jan 5, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    Just simply taking stats on my ex-classmates that I consider friends, both at school and from uni, the figure is about right. Yes, about 20% of all computer literate and educated young people in Russia choose to live, work or study abroad. It’s especially new for Russia, which traditionally was separated from the rest of the world.

  • 2 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 5, 2008 at 5:25 pm

    Alexey,

    Most of my classmates moved from Togliatti to Moscow. And I mean like 80%-90% of those that I can get a hang of. Only about 5% are abroad.

  • 3 lana // Jan 6, 2008 at 8:14 pm

    Sorry, but I need some clarification re:
    ==According to Mr. Popkov, about 20% of the traffic comes from abroad==

    Does it mean that the servers on which the “odnoklassnikis” have registered their accounts are located abroad (or their web-sites are hosted from abroad)? If it does then … to leave abroad and to have an e- mail address abroad - these are two different things.

  • 4 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 6, 2008 at 11:40 pm

    Lana,

    the meaning is that roughly 20% of visitors of the odnoklassniki.ru web site come from outside of Russia. Not the email addresses, but actual web users. If you visit Odnoklassniki.ru - you are the part of those 20% :)

  • 5 Ella // Jan 15, 2008 at 6:49 am

    I’m trying to log on odnoklassniki.ru and can’t do it for sometime today. Is there some technical problems to support that kind of traffic?Thanks.

  • 6 Polina // Jan 16, 2008 at 2:26 am

    the meaning is that roughly 20% of visitors of the odnoklassniki.ru web site come from outside of Russia.

    If visitors from Ukraine, Belorussia, Estonia, Georgia are included in those 20%, the number seems a bit low to me.

  • 7 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 16, 2008 at 2:30 am

    Polina,

    you bring up an excellent point! I wish we had some extra stats available to see what is really meant by those 20%…

  • 8 R // Jan 17, 2008 at 1:07 am

    Apparently they (admins of OK.ru) can not cope with the amount of requests to log in or even to download the starting page.

    Abt myself: from Ivanovo; abt 80% of uni-mates moved to Moscow; this year there will be only 2 of us abroad (my mate joins our community); couple of those who became millionares won’t leave Russia. Conclusion: less than 10% moved abroad but there are much more other talented who stayed there.

  • 9 R // Jan 17, 2008 at 1:34 am

    btw
    stats abt OK.ru

    http://www.alexa.com/data..._d.....assniki.ru

  • 10 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 17, 2008 at 2:19 am

    R,
    thanks for the link. Indeed there are some international stats at the bottom of the page…

  • 11 Gennadiy Zaretskiy // Jan 17, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    I think that the people, who leave abroad, are more interested into finding old classmates or friends. When you leave in another country with another language, is much more difficult to find new friends. 20% means TRAFFIC, not the number of users. People from outside of Russia have more possibilities to access internet during a day.

  • 12 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 18, 2008 at 1:55 am

    Gennadiy,

    I’m not sure about the specifics of “abroad” people, but I tend to think that people who moved from those places where they studied are more likely to search for ex-classmates on Odnoklassniki.

    Regarding the traffic - yes, I understand the difference. But, I think that there is a correlation in this particular case. I don’t think that people who abroad use Odnoklassniki in any way different to those people who are “at home”.

  • 13 SIB // Jan 20, 2008 at 2:43 am

    Leonid,
    I am Russian, nearly 70 years old, living abroad. The majority of my class- or even uni- mates living in Russia are not familiar with computers and often don’t have them. Their children have been getting in touch with me after I got registered on odnoklassniki.ru. This might be a reason of such a big traffic from abroad. Nearly each letter I receive represents one really registered person (my mate’s child) and one (sometimes two) virtual ones (my mate/s). What do you think about it?

  • 14 Leonid Mamchenkov // Jan 20, 2008 at 12:38 pm

    SIB,

    My first reaction was “Wow!”. :)

    I’m glad that technology has finally reached that point when it is accessible and useful to people who outside of their teen years. I think it’s amazing how sometimes people get connected across countries and generations.

    As to the question of traffic, I wonder how many (in total numbers or percentage-wise) of your class- and uni- mates are abroad and how many stayed in the country?

  • 15 Sham Rane // Jan 24, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    It is true that there are many foreign people around the world who got education in ex Soviet Union and presently working in their respective countries or in Europe there are no means for them to connect to their old friends odnoklassniki is a very good platform for them.

  • 16 Don // Feb 4, 2008 at 9:30 am

    I’M LIVE IN CANAD A AND SO FAR ALL MY ATTEMPTS TO REGISTER TO THIS SITE FAILED. DOES SOMEONE HAVE ANY IDEA ON HOW IT CAN BE DONE??

  • 17 olga harris // Feb 29, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    i live in the uk, have an account with hotmail, all attempts to register with OK.ru fail, it does not recognise my e-mail address. any similar problems anybody?

  • 18 Alex // Mar 1, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    More than half of my classmates, still alife, are abroud. To Olga Harris:try to register with odnoklassniki@km.ru first.I did it and it worked.

  • 19 Leonid Mamchenkov // Mar 2, 2008 at 1:46 am

    Alex,

    I really doubt it will allow registration of the second user with the same email address. If it will, there won’t be any way to distinguish between two different users.

  • 20 Iryna // Mar 5, 2008 at 11:01 pm

    Hi, I was pleasantly shorked to find out from my friend Ola of the existing webside. I’ve been in the UK for the last 7 years I left uni after my second year, it is not so bad abroad after all. Love you and miss you and my Ukraine alot.

  • 21 Olga // Mar 9, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    I have become addicted to Odnoklasniki last month. Ihave emigrated from Moscow in 79, have had little interst and contact with calssmates, but through this site one can find anybody, who is registred, not just form school, so I have been connecting with frinds, who are now in US, Israel, Germany, Russia etc. Once we connect, we ofenexchange ral emails too, for direct contacts, but still chek in once ina while on the sitel

  • 22 Olga // Mar 17, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Hi

    I live in Australia and registered on “Odnoklassniki” last week mostly because I wanted to find my uni friends. Unfortunately, I have no luck so far. Did anyone study in Samara State Pedagogical Institute in 1986-1991? Faculty of Foreign Languages? Did anyone know Vita Zumerman?
    Also, does anyone know if there is a separate website for Russian classmates/uni mates who live abroad? Would really appreciate your help.

  • 23 Lisa // Apr 21, 2008 at 5:50 am

    Hi,

    Odnoklassniki blocked me. I am simply not able to access the site. I had to admit that in the beginning I was very excited about this idea, found my old budies and friends. But in 1 month I’ve actually got bored (from all these achievements’ demos) and started to get some bugging letters. So I wrote to all my friends that this is the reason why I’m leaving for now but will create a fresh account for closest friends later (just to exchange). This is what I successfully did but in 1 day it stopped working. Now, a thing is that I used 5 computers to access the site before and now I can’t access it from all these comps (IP addresses are stored somethere). Then, I found that many people who live specifically abroad (me in Canada) have been treated the same way. Someone said that only those who show any sort of site abuse are treated this way.

    Excuse me, may they routinely read all our messages (11 mln of people)? Have access to our comps? Simply block someone freely expressing his opinion as a site abuser?
    Did anyone had a similar experience to mine?
    Because this successful russian project stinks to me…

  • 24 Leonid Mamchenkov // Apr 21, 2008 at 9:40 am

    Lisa,

    I don’t think (actually I am pretty sure) that you were blocked for whatever you did. The web site has plenty of scalability and connectivity issues to deal with, and I think that you not being able to access it is related to those problems. They have enough troubles as they are to engage in all the overhead of heavy censorship. So, don’t worry, give them a few days and they’ll be back for your location. :)

  • 25 el // Apr 22, 2008 at 1:37 am

    I have the same problem as Lisa! Very strange…and I didn’t done anything!

  • 26 Homeless banker // Apr 24, 2008 at 7:02 pm

    same here Lisa, i can`t get access to the site for weeks already. wonder how can this be solved….

  • 27 Elena // Apr 28, 2008 at 5:00 pm

    Me too, I cant access odnoklasskiki.ru, I even tried to access it from different computers. Still did not work. I have same problem with diary.ru.

  • 28 emma // Jun 28, 2008 at 9:42 pm

    I was using Odnoklasniki. from Brooklyn and I was having one picture of dog they CLOSED my account , telling me because I am not allowed to have that picture. I dont get it …I see sex pictures in Odniklassnik. I see with army and some CATS, dogs and websites. They CLOSE my Activation…this is RUSSIA. I am glad I dont live ther ANYMORE!!!

  • 29 Natalia // Jul 5, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    I have the same troubles as other people here with website odnoklassniki.ru,i opened once and in few hours the site was blocked and i can’t open it anymore.please, help to find a way how to unblock it, i met a lot friends there are, whose i didn’t hear long time…………

  • 30 byby // Jul 10, 2008 at 12:33 am

    God bless whoever created “Odnoklassniki” . I’ve lost contact with all my classmates years ago and now I found them again! That’s not the best friends you make in school, they are the only friends you will ever have. I even found my first love with simple press of the button. Life is good,,,

  • 31 Marina // Jul 18, 2008 at 5:34 pm

    I belive there is such a high persent of foreign members of odnoklassniki.ru site because of high speed of internet and unlimited availability in most of western countries. So anyone from Russia who lives abroad can open and use it easily, unlike many Russian classmates, who can either limited internet on no computer.

  • 32 Marina // Jul 25, 2008 at 12:11 am

    I am having difficulties getting throug the registration to the site. Need help.

  • 33 ernestina // Jul 29, 2008 at 1:57 am

    I’am having problem sigh to this site,please.help me.

  • 34 Arnold // Aug 10, 2008 at 5:01 pm

    I know what the 20 % are…
    I live in germany and my parents were born in kasachstan
    I would say around 5 million people who live in germany were born in kasachstan, too, so they went to school there, too
    and now they look for old school friends on odnoklassniki.ru

  • 35 keet // Aug 16, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    odnoklassniki.ru really it is a very good site. you can find there people all over the world.But now this site is blocked.After the coflict of Russia -Georgia.

  • 36 nina // Aug 18, 2008 at 11:05 am

    how do u open a accont on odnaklasniki.

  • 37 maya // Sep 5, 2008 at 4:31 am

    I am looking for my old classmates form st.Petersburg from school nuber 301. IF anybody will help me to find my old classmets I will be happy. I emergated form St.Petersburg in 1988.

  • 38 Anna // Nov 18, 2008 at 9:59 pm

    I can not get activation of the account in the odnaklasniki because I do not have a mobil from the list on the web site. If anibody from school 1207 o 1507 (Moscow, Russia, graduation year 1994, class A) reads this comment, I would be very happy to hear from you.

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