The future of Livejournal - as told by heads of Livejournal/LJ-Russia
This is something that has been on the backburner for way over a month. But since I have a rare free Monday, I decided to finally post it.
For the Westerners reading this, Livejournal Magazine is a feature unique to Livejournal Russia - a compilation of entries that Livejournal’s editorial team finds interesting. Back in Feb. 3, the Magazine posted an interview conducted by blogger Ilya Varlamov with Dmitriy Pilinenko (head of LJ-Russia), Vasiliy Gulin (LJ-Russia’s Editor in Chief) and Sofiya Ivanova (PR director Rambler, a Russian internet portal that is currently Livejournal’s corporate sibling). The subject of the interview - nothing less than the future of Livejournal itself.
Now, while it’s a pretty interesting interview, a lot of it deals with issues that are specific to LJ-Russia and Livejournal’s place in Russian-language Internet, and I only have so much free time, so I decided to focus on the parts that could potentially have impact on the Western users. But if any of you folks want to know more, I will try to translate more.
Quick note: in Russian, the word “blogger” and “LJ user” still tends to be used interchangeably.
Varlamov: What will happen to LJ in five years? What is your vision?
Pilinenko: There are two possible directions - service [platform] and media [platform]. In the last few years, we have attempted to bring the media direction to fruition, but we stepped on rakes and would up doing more of a project that was for the existing customer base than the external audience. Right now, our goal is to make the informational components so that it would be relevant not only to people who are familiar with Livejournal, with its bloggers and its flame wars; but so that an average reader who likes to read content from media outlets, as well as to read content authored by specific people to get their perspective on certain events. This is one direction.
The second direction is a service platform. We don’t want to turn LJ into some kind of WordPres. At this point, there is the ability to create your own page, customize it, write content, comment, add people. The set of tools that current exists isn’t 100% adequate. The mobile app, by the way, is almost here. We’ve already conducted some beta-testing, there are 10-15 major bloggers who are starting to feel it out and are writing feedback.
There will be new options that will aim more at user experience, so that it would be easier for a user to do anything. We will add likes in LJ - for posts and comments. And dislikes, too.
Which is actually pretty interesting. When Livejournal started out, it was, more than anything, an online diary. Over the years, it did become a source of news in some respects, whether it’s ohnotheydidnt and its spin-offs or various fandom communities. But if you look at what tends to wind up on the front page of LJ-Russia, a lot of those posts are more informational, covering current events, trips to exotic places, historical articles, cooking tips. There are still plenty of people who use it as a more of a diary - or, in case of users like my mom, a combination of a diary and informational/advice blog - but that’s not what gets most clicks, and, thus, most revenue.
Thing is, Western users that are still around are more likely to use it as a diary. Getting on the front page isn’t that important (especially since ONTD and related communities tend to hog the top spots anyway).
Again, I don’t know how much impact that would actually have. If nothing else, likes and dislikes is something people have been asking for… since at least 2011, if not longer.
Here is another interesting bit.
Varlamov: What are your monetization plans?
Pilinenko: First of all, along with paid tools, we have paid accounts, we have media advertising, so in essence, we have a decent advertising inventory with the traffic we have. Everything that you see is just a tip of the iceberg. There are special projects that we’ve done with advertising agencies, there is an internal programmatic model, there’s the ability to conduct a media campaign targeted based on the specific content or toward a specific audience. So there are a lot of tools, but user [monetization] tools - that’s definitely something that’s lacking. It hurts us as service, we didn’t work on it enough, and we definitely understand that. And it’s not enough for user if the [major content aggregator] buys up all of the top spots on the main page and gets all the traffic.
The tools will be created, and they will be more transparent and understandable. As with the content advertising, user would have the ability to buy advancement of their content with clear viewership metrics, and with clear fixed prices. The percentages will be transparent, especially for those who are producing content professionally, not just on LJ but in general. In other words, I’m talking about small social media marketing agencies, including certain advertising companies.
In February, we plan to launch a tool that will allow not only top bloggers, but bloggers who have a relatively small audience, to find an advertiser and create content that the advertiser needs, and earn money on it. The project itself, its concept was created based on the idea that the market for that currently exists within the platform.
It’s been there for a while, and there are some minuses to this market. Not because we didn’t get some kind of percentage [of the revenue] but because in many cases the advertiser’s experience with certain bloggers wound up being very negative, because the blogger didn’t contact them in a timely manner, or didn’t write what they need, or didn’t write anything at all, or got into an argument with the advertiser and, in the end, wrote something negative.
And finally, this bit isn’t really relevant outside LJ-Russia, but I thought a lot of my Western readers would find it interesting.
Varlamov: Alright, but do you have any sort of content with the [Russian] government about what content goes on LJ and what doesn’t. Somebody almost certainly writes you letters, right?
Pilinenko: Roskomnadzor, of course.
Varlamov: So, every morning, it sends you a bunch of faxes saying - delete this, delete that?
Pilinenko: Not “delete” - we don’t delete content, but we can institute regional blocks based on their demands.
Varlamov: So how many journals are currently blocked? Regionally, due to demands of Roskomnadzor?
Pilinenko: I can’t tell you for certain. About a thousand. But 99,9 % of the blcoks are due to one of the five criteria: drugs, suicide, porn, including child porn, nationalism and terrorist threats.
Varlamov: So basically, you block someone practically every day?
Pilinenko: Well, yeah. But every day, we also remove blocks after the blogger complied with the law. In other words, it’s a street, but it’s a two-way street.
Varlamov: Okay, last question - why is LJ down so much?
Ivanova: Every service has technical difficulties, and that goes for LJ, too. For the past two years they became much rarer, and most users don’t even notice it.
Earlier in the interview, they mentioned that they don’t mind opposition bloggers. There is a law, and they have to follow it, but they welcome everyone.
If you have any questions - or if you want to know if the interview touched on any other topics you might be curious about - please let me know.