Mail.ru (mail.ru)
Russia's leading email and web portal service.
Mail.ru at a glance
Mail.ru is a technology website and one of the most visited sites in Russia, currently ranked #6 in the country. It was founded in 1998 by Alexey Kobylkin, Anton Nosik (early web portal era) and is headquartered in Moscow, Russia. Today Mail.ru is owned by VK Company (formerly Mail.ru Group). Our estimates put its audience at ≈ 400 million visits per month. The business earns money mainly through display and native advertising, premium mailbox storage subscriptions, cross-promotion of vk company gaming and services. Its closest rivals include Yandex Mail, Gmail (limited availability), Rambler.
Traffic statistics
Traffic history
| Period | Visits | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | ≈ 390 million / month | +1% |
| Q2 | ≈ 400 million / month | +3% |
| Q3 | ≈ 410 million / month | +2% |
| Q4 | ≈ 400 million / month | -2% |
Traffic sources
- Direct60%
Bookmarked webmail and habitual portal visits
- Organic search18%
- Referral10%
Cross-links from VK Company services
- Social5%
- Paid & other7%
Audience & demographics
- Men48%
- Women52%
- Age 18-2414%
- Age 25-3424%
- Age 35-5440%
- Age 55+22%
Mail.ru's audience skews toward established adult users who adopted the service in the 2000s and continue to rely on it for email and news, alongside younger users drawn in via VK Company gaming links.
Geographic reach
- Russia82%
- Kazakhstan5%
- Belarus4%
- Ukraine3%
- Other6%
SEO profile
- Organic keywords
- ≈ 1.5 million
- Estimated organic traffic
- ≈ 100 million visits / month
- Strongest clusters
- Webmail login, news and portal service queries
Top organic keywords
| Keyword | Position | Volume | Traffic share |
|---|---|---|---|
| mail.ru | 1 | Very high | — |
| почта майл ру | 1 | High | — |
| майл ру новости | 1 | Medium | — |
Backlink profile
- Referring domains
- ≈ 1.2 million
- Link profile
- Cited widely across Russian-language news and reference sites
Top referral sources
- Direct55%
- VK Company cross-links15%
- Search engines20%
- Other10%
Technology stack
Website technologies
Advertising & analytics technologies
Mail.ru's infrastructure is built on long-standing in-house technologies including the Tarantool database, originally developed internally, alongside the myTarget advertising network shared across VK Company properties.
Mobile app statistics
- Cumulative app installs
- ≈ 150 million
- Daily active app users
- ≈ 8 million
Company information
- Website
- mail.ru
- Sector
- Technology
- Owner
- VK Company (formerly Mail.ru Group)
- Owner type
- Public company
- Founders
- Alexey Kobylkin, Anton Nosik (early web portal era)
- Founded
- 1998
- Headquarters
- Moscow, Russia
- Employees
- ≈ 12,000 (VK Company group)
- Ownership
- Subsidiary of publicly traded VK Company (MOEX: VKCO)
- Valuation
- ≈ USD 2-3 billion (VK Company group estimate)
- Revenue
- ≈ RUB 30 billion annually (portal and mail segment estimate)
- Languages
- Russian
- Top traffic sources
- Direct navigation, bookmarked email access, news portal browsing
Ownership, investors & funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Founded | N/A | Founders |
| 2005 | Rebranded as Mail.ru | N/A | — |
| 2021 | Group renamed VK Company | N/A | — |
Financials
- Portal and mail segment revenue
- ≈ RUB 30 billion / year
Business model & revenue
Mail.ru operates as a web portal combining free webmail, news aggregation and entry points into the wider VK Company ecosystem, monetising primarily through display advertising and premium storage tiers.
- Display and native advertising
- Premium mailbox storage subscriptions
- Cross-promotion of VK Company gaming and services
- News aggregation advertising
Products & services
Free email service with cloud storage.
Aggregated Russian and international news portal.
Personal cloud storage service.
Gaming platform cross-promoted through the portal.
Related deals on Amazon
As an Amazon Associate, Global Site Index earns from qualifying purchases.
Seller ecosystem
- Advertisers
- Tens of thousands via myTarget
International presence
- CIS markets
- Active user base in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine
Employee statistics
Customer statistics
API & developer information
- Mail.ru Cloud API
- Developer API for storage integrations
Website rankings
- Russia webmail traffic
- #1
- Overall Russia traffic
- #6
Main competitors
Website comparisons
| Website | Monthly visits | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yandex | Larger overall traffic | — | Mail.ru focuses more narrowly on webmail and news portal usage |
Overview
Mail.ru is one of Russia's oldest and most widely used web portals, combining free webmail, a news aggregation service and entry points into the broader VK Company ecosystem.
Traffic Statistics
mail.ru attracts an estimated 400 million monthly visits, with users averaging around 5 pages per session while checking email and browsing news.
Traffic Sources
Direct traffic dominates thanks to bookmarked webmail access, supplemented by organic search and cross-links from other VK Company services.
Audience & Demographics
Mail.ru's audience skews toward established adult users who adopted the service in the 2000s, alongside younger users introduced through VK Company gaming links.
Geographic Reach
Russia accounts for roughly 82% of traffic, with meaningful secondary audiences in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine.
SEO Profile
Mail.ru ranks strongly for webmail login, news and portal service queries across Russian-language search.
Technology Stack
The portal runs on long-standing in-house technologies including the Tarantool in-memory database and the myTarget advertising platform shared across VK Company properties.
Social Media Statistics
Mail.ru maintains VK and Telegram channels used for service updates and announcements.
Mobile App Statistics
The Mail.ru mobile app has surpassed 100 million downloads on Android, with millions of daily active users checking email on the go.
Company Information
Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Moscow, Mail.ru operates as part of the roughly 12,000-employee VK Company group.
Ownership & Investors
Mail.ru is owned by publicly traded VK Company, listed on the Moscow Exchange under the ticker VKCO.
Financials
The portal and mail segment generates an estimated RUB 30 billion annually, primarily from display advertising.
Business Model
Mail.ru monetises through display and native advertising, premium mailbox storage subscriptions and cross-promotion of VK Company gaming and services.
Products & Services
Core products include Mail.ru Webmail, the Mail.ru News portal, Mail.ru Cloud storage and cross-promoted access to VK Play gaming.
Competitors
Key competitors include Yandex Mail and Rambler, alongside limited-availability international webmail providers such as Gmail.
Company History & Milestones
From its 1998 launch through a 2010 London Stock Exchange IPO and the 2021 rebrand of its parent group to VK Company, Mail.ru has remained a cornerstone of the Russian internet.
Latest News
Mail.ru continues to deepen cross-links with VK Company's gaming and social products.
User Reviews & Ratings
Mail.ru remains a trusted, long-running webmail and news portal for millions of Russian users, valued for its stability and free storage despite a somewhat dated interface.
Pros & Cons
Pros: long-established trusted webmail, integrated news and cloud storage, broad CIS reach. Cons: dated interface perception, heavy advertising and overlap with sibling VK Company products.
Key Statistics
≈400 million monthly visits, ≈100 million active mailboxes, and around 12,000 employees group-wide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Mail.ru? VK Company, a publicly traded Russian technology group. Is it free? Yes, webmail, news and basic cloud storage are free, with premium tiers available.
Data Sources
VK Company investor reports and Similarweb estimates.
Last Updated
September 2026
Related Websites
VK and Yandex.
Website Rankings
#1 webmail destination and #6 overall traffic destination in Russia.
Revenue & Funding History
Mail.ru was founded in 1998, completed an IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2010, and its parent group was rebranded VK Company in 2021.
Employee Statistics
The VK Company group, which operates Mail.ru, employs approximately 12,000 people across engineering, advertising sales and content moderation.
Customer Statistics
Mail.ru maintains around 100 million active mailboxes and serves roughly 45 million monthly users in Russia.
Backlink Profile
mail.ru has around 1.2 million referring domains, cited widely across Russian-language news and reference sites.
Top Organic Keywords
Leading keywords include "mail.ru", "почта майл ру" and "майл ру новости".
Top Referral Sources
Direct traffic dominates, supplemented by cross-links from VK Company services and search engine referrals.
Website Technologies
PHP and React power the front end, with the Tarantool in-memory database and Nginx underpinning core infrastructure.
Advertising & Analytics Technologies
The myTarget advertising platform, Top.Mail.ru analytics and VK Ads integration.
API & Developer Information
Mail.ru Cloud offers a developer API for storage integrations.
International Seller Opportunities
Mail.ru's advertising reach extends into CIS markets through the shared myTarget network, though core usage remains concentrated in Russia.
Company history & milestones
- 1998
Mail.ru webmail service launched
- 2010
Mail.ru Group IPO on the London Stock Exchange
- 2021
Group rebranded as VK Company
- 2026
Continues integration with VK Company ecosystem services
Latest news
- Mail.ru integrates deeper cross-links with VK Company gaming servicesVK Company investor relations · 2026
Pros & cons
Pros
- Long-established, trusted webmail service
- Integrated news portal and cloud storage
- Broad reach across CIS countries
- Free core services
Cons
- Perceived as dated compared to newer interfaces
- Heavy display advertising presence
- Overlap with sibling VK Company products
- Limited innovation relative to Yandex ecosystem
Key statistics
Frequently asked questions
Who owns Mail.ru?
Mail.ru is operated by VK Company, a publicly traded Russian technology group listed on the Moscow Exchange.
Is Mail.ru free to use?
Yes, webmail, news and basic cloud storage are free, with premium storage tiers available.
Popular searches
Data sources & confidence
- VK Company investor reportsVK Company
- Similarweb estimatesSimilarweb
- Data confidence
- High for ownership and founding history; traffic and revenue figures are third-party approximations.
- Last updated
- September 2026
Traffic and audience figures are modelled estimates based on public industry reports and third-party analytics tools.
Social media profiles & statistics