Posts passed: top bloggers' income on Telegram dropped by almost 20%
The income of top bloggers on Telegram fell by almost 20%, from 144 million to 119 million rubles in three quarters compared to the same period in 2024, the Association of Bloggers and Agencies said. The reason is the slowdown in advertising growth there. Brands stopped placing it "by inertia" and began to act more selectively. Competition from domestic resources is also growing. What the market should prepare for is in the Izvestia article.
How much money do bloggers lose?
According to the results of the three quarters of 2025, the revenues of major bloggers in Telegram decreased by almost 20% — from 144 million to 119 million rubles compared to the same period in 2024, the Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) told Izvestia. This is due to a slowdown in the growth of the messenger advertising market and a change in brand behavior. The number of integrations also dropped by 29%, which, according to analysts, indicates that companies have begun to post such posts more selectively, rather than "by inertia."
According to the ABA, in the third quarter, compared to the same period in 2024, the incomes of major bloggers changed significantly. For Ksenia Sobchak, the drop was 10% (from 8.5 to 7.65 million rubles), for Artemy Lebedev — 48% (from 11.85 to 6.15 million), for Dima Maslennikov — 50% (from 6.85 to 3.42 million), for Evgeny Kogan — 23.8% (from 4.94 to 3.76 million). Among the top 5 bloggers, Ksenia Borodina's advertising revenue on Telegram increased by 4.5% (from 8.8 million rubles to 9.2 million rubles).
Among the possible reasons, ABA experts cite the uncertainty of the messenger's status in the Russian Federation. In mid-August, Roskomnadzor announced restrictions on calls to Telegram and WhatsApp (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). The agency noted that they had become "the main voice services used to deceive and extort money, to involve Russian citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities." But despite reports from Roskomnadzor that there are no plans to completely restrict the services, reports of possible further sanctions against them continue to spread online. This also affects business concerns.
However, the market is currently undergoing a period of restructuring: companies are actively testing new platforms and promotion formats, ABA analysts say. According to their forecasts, the total advertising volume of top bloggers may show a slight increase - about 3-5% — due to higher prices for placement, but the number of integrations is likely to continue to decrease.
Competition from domestic resources is also growing. For example, the MAX messenger is actively developing its own advertising tools and is beginning to attract the attention of both the audience and advertisers.
As the service's press service told Izvestia, his team is currently focused on developing and improving the user experience and basic functionality of the channels, but at the same time, the authors can independently place advertising integrations on the platform.
"Designer Artemy Lebedev was the first to post commercial integration in the MAX messenger, which showed the platform's potential for native advertising and attracted the attention of authors and advertisers," they noted.
The MAX press service added that such integrations and collaborations with other authors are regularly posted by LoveRadio, The World Today with Yuri Podolyaka, TV Center | TVC and other authors. To engage the audience in the channels, the authors also actively use the formats of hosting exclusives and contests, they noted.
What attracts domestic sites
The decline in the income of major bloggers on Telegram is not a crisis, but a stage of restructuring, says Tatiana Nikishina, managing director of the creative agency Closer. The period of rapid growth, when brands were placed "by inertia", is over. Now companies are not buying "reach", but real returns — they are looking for bloggers where advertising will definitely work.
— Advertisers have finally started to think like investors: analyze the audience, conversion, author's style, and brand values. Instead of "a little bit of everything", the market switched to a strategy of "less is better, but more accurate". Telegram is still in limbo — it is allowed, but not formally licensed as a media platform. Brands, especially large ones, don't want to take risks. Hence the caution: instead of hundreds of integrations, there are several proven, legally secure and verified ones," she said.
According to her, the positions of domestic platforms have also begun to strengthen. VK, Rutube and even new players like the MAX messenger have one important advantage — predictability, since they are understandable from the point of view of legislation, are open to cooperation with the government and business, have a reporting system and transparent metrics.
According to open sources, in the second quarter of 2025, the authors concluded twice as many successful brand deals on the VK AdBlogger platform compared to the first quarter. By June, the total number of transactions reached 700 thousand. The highest dynamics of demand for accommodation was shown by the travel directions (an increase of 2.4 times), fitness (two times), culture (1.5 times).
Also this fall, VKontakte introduced two new services that open up additional opportunities for authors and advertisers: shopping — publications with product cards that can be used to make a purchase, and support for authors in VK Videos via VK Donut. At VK Video, the authors' income under the new monetization program has increased sixfold. 80 thousand authors are connected to the monetization model. The categories of "Children's content", "Games", "News" and "Entertainment" accounted for the largest payments — more than 1 million rubles.
The development of products for advertisers is one of the main areas of work at the moment, the press service of Gazprom—Media Holding's digital assets noted.
— At the end of 2024, we launched our first major advertising product, instream advertising (commercials during videos), recently launched banner advertising and are planning several more launches before the end of the year. And our efforts are already yielding results. Today, almost all segments of advertisers are represented on Rutube: banks, insurance companies, real estate, retail, e-com, FMCG and others, the company said.
As for the results, revenue from the advertising business has quadrupled over the year, and the company expects to increase its pace by the end of 2025, they concluded.
Customers began to count money more carefully, and this is reflected in all promotion channels — from Telegram to other social networks, this is a natural reaction to the macroeconomic context, says Maxim Alekseev, CEO of the communication agency "Group Discourse".
You can also notice a trend such as the transition to cooperation with microbloggers and micro-influencers, which speaks not so much about the limited budgets themselves, but about a more flexible and often more effective approach that allows you to build point-to-point communication with different audiences, he added.
However, Yaroslav Meshalkin, an expert on digital communications, does not agree with the assessment: in 2025, on the contrary, he sees an increase in the number of advertising requests, especially after September 1, when advertising on banned social networks became impossible. Telegram, in his opinion, remains a key platform with high engagement.
— The interest in domestic platforms like MAX is an attempt to "feel" a new communication channel, the desire not to miss an opportunity. By and large, test integrations are still underway. Of course, with the development of the media component of the messenger, interest in it will grow," the expert noted.
The digital world is now actively segmented and encapsulated, countries are prioritizing national solutions due to concern for their sovereignty, information and security, so platforms need to find other incentives for development than fighting strong foreign competitors, he concluded.
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