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Russia prides itself in holding the largest internet-user population among all European countries, with internet users surpassing 100 million to date. Russia tacked on 60 million new Internet users from 2009, while Internet penetration rate climbed to 71.3% from 29% in 2009. According to eMarketer, 80.3% of Russians will use Internet on their mobile phone in 2016.The Russian e-commerce market is expected to grow by 15 percent by the end of 2016, while it is anticipated that the amount of money spent in online stores (outside of Russia) will increase by 37 percent.

Social networking in the country is dominated by VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, with about 46.6 million and 31.5 million active monthly users respectively.

Russia is in the top 5 biggest YouTube countries outside the US, with 84% of unique Internet users watching online video monthly. Mobile video accounted for a majority of all mobile data traffic in Russia in 2015—and some researchers estimate that by 2020, three-quarters of all mobile traffic will come from video viewing.

With an ongoing growth of internet penetration, online purchases, content consumption, and low entry barriers, Russia is an attractive option for foreign businesses.