MOSCOW, 7 August 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the results of a survey about online chats that Russians use and how much time they spend there.  

There are never too many chats

On the whole, three-quarters of Internet users (76%) read group chats to a varying degree. Over the recent year, Russian involvement in group chatting has not changed much (2023 — 74%). The share of daily users is 46%, i.e. almost half of users. A further 15% read chats several times a week; the same percentage (15%), once a month or less often. Every fourth (23%) does not read or look through group chats (2023 — 26%).

• Everyday chat users are often women (50% vs. 41% of men), Russians aged under 45 (50-56% vs. 46% among those aged 45-59 and 28% among Internet users aged above 60), persons with higher and incomplete higher education (55%), good financial income (50%), those living in the cities (45-51% vs. 40% of rural area).
• Those who tend to ignore chats are largely men (28% vs. 18% of women), Internet users aged 60+ (40%), persons with the level of education above secondary special and lower (29-38%), with bad financial situation (31%), rural area residents (31% vs. 20-22% of urban dwellers).

Every third respondent (33%, 2023 — 30%) is a member of seven chats (41-42% of young persons aged under 34). Twenty-eight percent of respondents joined 1-3 chats. About the same percentage of respondents (26%) are members of 4-6 chats. In general, an Internet user uses 14 different chat groups. The most active chat users are the 35-44-year-olds (20 chats); those who are over 45 use chats much less often (5-6 chats).

From memes to work tasks

Communication is the basic goal for people eager to join group chats:  parents’ group chats (29%, 2023 — 33%), building/neighborhood/community group chats (27%, 2023 — 23%). Remarkably, work-related chats (24%) even outpace family and friends’ chats (16%). Fewer respondents mention group chats involving classmates, groupmates (5%), studies-related chats (4%).

Chats are also used based on shared interests: communicating with like-minded persons who have the same hobby, favorite activities (22%), catching up on news (20%), municipal/regional chats (6%), sport-related chats (4%), dacha, buy/sell, as well as SMO (2%, each). News chats are of interest mainly for men (25% vs. 17% of women), chats with like-minded people based on mutual hobbies are favorite among young people under 24 (33%).

Trust but verify?

More than one-third of Russian Internet users who joined group chats, trust the information from these chats (36%), which is 7 p.p. lower than a year ago (2023 — 43%). However, trust is selective: every second respondent (52%) trust particular chats and distrust others. A further 9% do not trust the information distributed in group chats. Those who trust chats more are women (40% vs. 32% of men) and young respondents aged 18-34 (39-42%).

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone surveys were conducted July 12, 2024. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in each survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of July 12, 2024:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7554; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0112; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0331. Calculations are based on corporate standard https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.