Social, economic and legal aspects of social media integration in Russia in the 2020s

The purpose of this article is to identify the characteristic features and indicators of the integration of social media into Russian society and the economy and to examine the legalization and regulation of this process. Methods: analysis, synthesis, comparison, retrospective research, economic, sociological, and legal. Results: 1) social media were examined as a phenomenon and subject of sociological analysis, and a working definition was selected to provide a unified understanding of the phenomenon in further research; 2) the stages and phases of social media integration into modern Russian society were examined in detail using data from Medialogia and Brendanalitics, VTsIOM, and the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR). Conclusions were drawn regarding the current results of social media integration into Russian society and its evolution over the past three years; 3) the economic and legal aspects of social media integration into modern Russian society were examined. In particular, a model for the legalization and legal regulation of social media development in modern Russia was defined, and the use of social media in the economy and business environment was characterized; 4) the problems of social media development in Russia are examined, and it is established that they consist of two main groups of factors: organizational and financial, within which Russian social networks face the problem of unprofitability, and evolutionary factors, within which domestic social networks directly face growth challenges; 5) the prospects for the development of social media in Russia are identified, these will obviously be linked to the further integration of artificial intelligence into this area. The forms of this integration are defined, and the social opportunities and risks generated by it are formulated. Conclusions. Social media are an integral component of our daily lives and, more broadly, the social reality in which we exist and will continue to exist. The rapid growth of social media, in terms of user reach, has now approached 100% of internet users. The most popular social networks in Russia, the TOP-3, are: VKontakte, Telegram, Odnoklassniki. There has also been an explosive growth in content in recent years, reaching approximately 2 billion messages per month in 2025. The increase in domestic social media users was driven by the banning of foreign social media and their retreat from the RuNet. This, however, does not mean the complete cessation of Russian and Russian corporate users’ presence on foreign social media. According to available data, Russian corporate users spent approximately $5 billion on advertising on foreign social media in 2025. Domestic social media are unprofitable; from 2021 to 2024, VK’s losses increased 120-fold, reaching 50 billion rubles in 2024. According to an insider, this situation stems from the lack of effective business models, the search, testing, and implementation of which was deemed unnecessary by top management due to the monopoly in the industry. The most likely development prospect for domestic social networks, under these conditions, is stagnation due to objective and subjective reasons. A solution to this situation could be the development and implementation of alternatives to VK and OK social networks and, consequently, increased competition in the field. A potential way out of the social media market’s emerging development impasse is the integration project Cocoon, announced by Pavel Durov, which combines AI and crypto operations. Further market development may move in this direction.