Odnoklassniki

Odnoklassniki
Web address ok.ru
Type of site
 Social Networking
Registration Required; no payment needed since August 31, 2010
Available in
Owner Mail.ru Group
Created by Albert Popkov (founder and head)
Launched March 4, 2006
Alexa rank
 positive decrease 99 (Dec 2014)[1]

Odnoklassniki, OK.ru (Russian: Одноклассники -Classmates) is a social network service for classmates and old friends. It is popular in Russia and former Soviet Republics.[2] The site was developed by Albert Popkov on March 4, 2006.[3]

The website currently claims that it has more than 200 million registered users and 45 million daily unique visitors. Users have to be at least seven years old to make an account.[4] Odnoklassniki also currently has an Alexa Internet traffic ranking of 69 worldwide and 7 for Russia. Revenues in the first quarter of 2008 for Odnoklassniki amounted to $3.3 million.[5] [6] [7]

The site has been online for at least eight years. Compared with internet averages, Odnoklassniki.ru's users tend to be under the age of 35, and they tend to be men earning less than $30,000 who have postgraduate educations and browse from home. The site is particularly popular among users in Kyrgyzstan (where it is ranked #4) and Armenia (#5).[8]

The server that hosts odnoklassniki.ru is located in Moscow, Russian Federation. The server is located on the Golden Telecom, Moscow, Russia network. The programming language used on the site is Java and the main language used for the site's textual content is Russian. The site is using the Apache Tomcat web server. [9]

The website won the Runet Prizes in 2006[10] and 2007.[11]

In February 2008, British company I-CD accused Albert Popkov of violating their copyright. According to I-CD, Albert Popkov as an employee of I-CD worked on their projects 192.com and Passado until his resignation in November 2005. In December 2006 the company raised 10 million Euro to expand Passado in Russia.[12] Albert Popkov allegedly used the proprietary information to create his own site very similar to Passado. He denied those allegations[13] but was later dismissed as Managing Director by Odnoklassniki[14] and in November 2009 after the first day of trial in the Royal Court of Justice[15] in London I-CD completely dropped all charges against Albert Popkov and Odnoklassniki[16] after Albert Popkov and Odnoklassniki agreed to pay i-CD an undisclosed amount of cash in settlement of the case against them.

On September 15, 2008, Vedomosti announced that Albert Popkov, founders and key shareholders in Odnoklassniki had sold controlling interest in the network to Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the owner of Mail.ru. DST and its subsidiary Forticom together control 58% of the network.[17] On the previous day it was announced during a news conference that the network's interface would be translated into Azerbaijani.

In 2012, Venture Village named the site as among 'The Top 10 Russian Internet Brands Out to Conquer the World' [18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "odnoklassniki.ru Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
  2. ↑ Social Media in Russia, Dreamgrow.com, 2011.
  3. ↑ About the project
  4. ↑ Odnoklassniki Advertising (Russian)
  5. ↑ "Russian Social Network Odnaklassniki.ru hits 20 million". Amit Chowdhry. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  6. ↑ "odnoklassniki.ru - Traffic Details". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-06-10.
  7. ↑ "Odnoklassniki". ServerSliders.com. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  8. ↑ "alexa - Odnaklasniki.ru". alexa.com. Retrieved 2012-04-12.
  9. ↑ "Odnoklassniki". ServerSliders.com. Retrieved 2010-09-20.
  10. ↑ Runet Prize, 2006 (Russian)
  11. ↑ Runet Prize, 2007 (Russian)
  12. ↑ Euro Social Networking Site Passado.com Set to Expand CIO.com, December 2006 . (English)
  13. ↑ Британская компания требует отдать ей "Одноклассники.ru" NEWSru, December 3, 2008. (Russian)
  14. ↑ Альберта Попкова сняли с должности гендиректора "Одноклассников" rb.ru, September 15, 2009. (Russian)
  15. ↑ Инсайд: Стенограмма прений в суде по иску i-CD Publishing к Альберту Попкову ROEM.ru, October 29, 2009.
  16. ↑ Британская компания отозвала иск к создателю Odnoklassniki.ru Альберту Попкову SNOB.ru, November 25, 2009. (Russian)
  17. ↑ (Russian) Vedomosti, September 15, 2008
  18. ↑ Top 10 Russian Internet Brands out to conquer the world

External links