Rutube to expand into African market

Rutube, owned by Gazprom-Media Holding, is preparing to enter the African market, Rozetked reported. During the SPIEF 2025 forum, company deputy head Sergey Kosinskiy announced talks with countries in the Sahel corridor — Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea.

In the initial phase, the platform will adapt its interface and selected Russian-language content for French-speaking audiences by providing translations and enabling local user registration. As part of cultural cooperation with Mali, 14 Soviet-era films produced by the Gorky Studio have already been translated into French.

Rutube is also expanding in Asia. In Indonesia, after uploading videos in the local language, the viewership increased tenfold. In the first four months of 2025, the top countries by viewership were Kazakhstan (119 million), Belarus (101 million), and Germany (51 million).

Kosinskiy emphasized that international cooperation is key to the platform’s global growth. Rutube is also exploring collaborations with other friendly nations and developing an AI assistant to help bloggers speed up content moderation. Read 'Zamin' on Telegram!