Odnoklassniki: \'\'We are the first among social networks in Armenia\'\'

On June 22, Odnoklassniki (Mail.RuGroup project) will announce that from now on those living in Armenia will be able to use the social network in their native language. On the eve of the event, Marketing and Strategic Communications Director of \'\'Social Networks\'\' business unit of Mail.Ru Group Alexander Izryadnov answered Mediamax\'s questions.

- How do you assess \'\'Odnoklassniki\'\'\'s positions in Armenia?

- We are currently the first among the social networks in Armenia. 90 % of all those living in Armenia and having internet access use Odnoklassniki. Every day Odnoklassniki has over 800 000 visits and every third person uses his mobile phone to visit the social network.

- What goals will localization allow to fulfill on the Armenia market?

- We want to give an opportunity to our users to communicate in the language convenient for them.

- How \'\'deep\'\' will the localization be?

- Localization of Odnoklassniki will be held in 2 phases - we have already translated the mobile version of the social network and the main site will be translated within a month. Applications for Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Symbian platforms will also be translated and available in the nearest future.

We also plan to attract local content - games, videos, music.

- Analysts forecast that \'\'Odnoklassniki\'\'\'s revenue from game applications will reach USD 135mln by the end of the year. Can we suppose that the growth in the game segment is one of the motives for decision on localization in the first place?

- Games on Odnoklassniki are a very large part of the revenue. If local developers want to create games based on the local topics we can speak of increasing revenues in the games owing to localization.

- There is a view in Armenia that over the past 2-3 years, the larg part of the intellectual users have migrated to Facebook and \'\'Odnoklassniki\'\' is now mainly used by teenagers. How do you characterize your audience in Armenia?

-You can see here how Facebook grows in Armenia: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/armenia. One can hardly call this growth significant. As for demography, Odnoklassniki and Facebook have very similar ones. The core of the audience is people aged 18 -24 – male and female users are almost equal in number.

- What advertisement model is used on \'\'Odnoklassniki\'\' in Armenia? Do you have authorized agency/agencies or do the advertisers contact you directly?

- We have several types of advertisement. As for the traditional banner advertisement - we have an authorized agency which represents our interests in Armenia. We also have a target-ad where every one can choose whom to show his advertisement, in what quantity etc.  You can find more detailed information on advertisement and rates here: http://corp.mail.ru/adv/reg_am.htm?type=ok .

- Do you expect sales growth in Armenia after localization of the network in the Armenian language?

- It\'s more of an image project meant for enhancing loyalty to the social network. We expect to attract audience which uses its native language and increase the number of users in the country owing to it.