VK Video, Rutube and free VPN became the most downloaded apps in Russia. The video services VK Video and Rutube took the second and third places in the top 3 most downloaded apps, behind only the free VPN. This follows from the data of the App Store and Google Play stores as of August 6.
Despite the slowdown in video download speeds, YouTube's average daily audience in Russia exceeded 55 million people at the end of July, according to Mediascope. According to VK, downloads of the VK Video app increased 4.5 times compared to the monthly average. Rutube also more than doubled its audience, reaching over 4 million users in June. This statistic was provided by Mediascope researchers and refers to the average daily audience of Russians over 12 years old.
In June and July, "VK Video" for iOS ranked 23rd in the App Store top. Since the end of July, the app has risen sharply from 54th place to the top 3 in ten days. Rutube demonstrated similar dynamics. The "VPN - fast and free VPN" app has been in the top 3 of the App Store since May.
The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, said on July 25 that the download speed of YouTube on desktop computers could drop to 70% by the end of the week. He noted that this is a forced step against the administration of the foreign resource.
Sources in the telecom market suggested that the traffic slowdown may be related to the operation of TSPU equipment (technical means of countering threats). According to the law "On Sovereign Runet", which came into force on September 1, 2019, Russia can centrally manage the network and slow down the traffic of resources in case of a threat to the national segment of the Internet. This decision is made by Roskomnadzor.