Internet in Ukraine
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The Internet in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
is well developed and steadily growing, mostly uninfluenced by the
global financial crisis Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 1989 * ''Global'' (Todd Rundgren album), 2015 * Bruno ...
; in April 2012 rapid growth was forecast for at least two more years. , Ukraine was ranked 9th in the "Top 10 Internet countries in Europe", with then 33.9%
Internet penetration Global Internet Usage is the number of people who use the Internet worldwide. Internet users In 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated about 3.2 billion people, or almost half of the world's population, would be online by the ...
and 15.3 million users; growing to 36.8% in 2012. However, about 30 million Ukrainians (85% of the country's population older than 15) were Internet users. In 2011, online retailing turnover in Ukraine exceeded US$2 bn. For 2012, it was expected to reach US$4 bn. Online payments in the country in 2011 where estimated at US$400 million, 200% growth compared to 2010. , Ukraine ranked 59th among the world's countries by the fixed broadband Internet access
speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (ma ...
, with an average download speed of 59.13
mbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...
, and 80th by the
mobile network A cellular network or mobile network is a communication network where the link to and from end nodes is wireless. The network is distributed over land areas called "cells", each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver (typically thre ...
Internet access speed with 25.63
mbit/s In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits ( bitrate), characters or symbols ( baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are mu ...
. Freedom House concluded that the Internet in Ukraine is "Partly Free" in 2019 and 2020.There is no completely free internet in Ukraine - Freedom House
Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...
(14 October 2020)
A Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found that for the first time Ukrainians preferred the Internet as their primary news source instead of
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
(51% preferred the Internet and 41% TV).


Internet audience

According to GlobalLogic, 85% of Ukraine's population older than 15 have had access to Internet in January 2021. Data from database: World Development Indicators Last Updated: 10/14/2016 indicates the data below


Internet services

In 2011, the number of subscribers to
Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privat ...
s in Ukraine had increased compared to 2010 by 13.3% to 4,148,658.Більше половини українців не користуються інтернетом
''
Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukrai ...
'' (2012-07-29)
After the 3rd quarter of 2012, the number of broadband subscribers alone exceeded that figure, grown to 6,700,000. 2011 revenues from Internet service providing in Ukraine reached UAH 4.75 bn (US$595 mn). It is unclear whether these numbers include
mobile Internet The mobile web refers to mobile browser-based World Wide Web services accessed from handheld mobile devices, such as smartphones or feature phones, through a mobile or other wireless network. History and development Traditionally, the Worl ...
services which are provided by all of Ukraine's
mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...
operators.


Access technologies

All existing standards of Internet access are available in Ukraine, with broadband services mostly limited to cities. Mobile GPRS access is available in vast majority of Ukraine's territory, including all
urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities ...
s and airports, most roads and railway lines, many coastal waters. 3G mobile access market is steadily developing. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are widespread throughout cities. There are plans and projects for providing mass
wireless broadband access Wireless broadband is telecommunications technology that provides high-speed wireless Internet access or computer networking access over a wide area. The term comprises both fixed and mobile broadband. The term broadband Originally the word "b ...
in urban open spaces, on
Ukrzaliznytsia Ukrainian Railways ( uk, Укрзалізниця, Ukrzaliznytsia, abbreviated as UZ) is a state-owned joint-stock company of rail transport in Ukraine, a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transportation in the country. I ...
long-distance trains and in urban public transport vehicles. According to Ericsson ConsumerLab, 36% of Ukraine's urban population access the Internet via mobile phone or
smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
. According to the iKS-Consulting, there were 6 700 000 broadband subscribers in Ukraine as of 3Q 2012; 5.97 million of them were households, which amounts to 34% broadband Internet penetration of all country's households. The consultancy estimated broadband providing revenues in the 3rd quarter of 2012 at UAH 1.36 bn (US$167 mn), which is the growth 13.7% compared to 3Q 2011 results. Thousands of national, regional and local ISP operate in Ukraine, with as much 14 ISPs competing for every household client in the capital city
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...
.


Major Internet service providers

According to Expert & Consulting (E&C), the top-10 Ukrainian fixed Broadband Internet service providers had about 3.36 million subscribers as of the 2nd quarter of 2012; as of the 3rd quarter, that figure rose to about 3,46 million subscribers. According to estimations of Expert & Consulting (E&C), there were 7,06 mln. subscribers of fixed Broadband Internet at the end of 1st half of 2013.
Ukrtelecom Ukrtelecom JSC ( uk, Укртелеком) ( PFTS:br>UTLM is Ukraine's monopolist telephone company, also active in the ISP and mobile markets. The company was governed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of Ukraine with 92.9 ...
is the largest Internet access provider (as well as fixed telephone provider) and was the only
UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. Developed and maintained by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), UMTS is a component of the In ...
3G provider in Ukraine until 2015, when all three major operators (Vodafone, Kyivstar and Lifecell) have gained the licensing and set up their own 3G networks. In particular, it was serving over 1.4 million
DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...
/
ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work ...
fixed access clients in June 2012. The second-largest provider Volia is a major player specializing in cable access combined with TV signal. Both MTS and
Kyivstar Kyivstar ( uk, Київстар) is a Ukrainian telecommunications company, providing communication services and data transmission based on a broad range of fixed and mobile technologies, including 4G (LTE) in Ukraine. The Kyivstar mobile netw ...
(Ukraine's largest
mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...
operators) also offer fixed broadband access along with their mobile Internet services.


Social networks


Facebook

There were 1,686,500
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
users in Ukraine in 2011 and over 3,000,000 in October 2013. According to the Internet Association of Ukraine 13 million Ukrainians used Facebook in 2019. In 2018, this number had increased by 3 million or 30%, and in the previous five years by 9.8 million or 306.2%.Three years without VKontakte: what social networks do Ukrainians prefer
Ukrayinska Pravda (14 November 2019)
The Internet Association of Ukraine claimed in November 2019 that Facebook was the most popular social network of Ukraine.


Twitter

According to the
Google Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. As o ...
, in 2012 the number of daily
Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
visitors from Ukraine reaches 120,000 while the "
Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...
.Ukraine" estimated the number of Ukrainian users at 500,000, and GfK Ukraine, a market research company, found that a quarter of Ukrainian Twitter users ignore their accounts completely, while 28 percent check them only occasionally.Ukraine is not a tweeting nation yet, but give it time
Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...
(2012-4-5)
Ukrainian politician
Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 6% of Ukrainians used Twitter.


Instagram

According to research by PlusOne Communications Group in March 2019 Ukraine had 11 million Instagram users. Ukrainians under the age of 30 used Instagram more than Facebook.Instagram - social network N1 for Ukrainian youth under the age of 30
Interfax-Ukraine (26 March 2019)
According to the Internet Association of Ukraine 3.8 million people used the network in 2017, in 2018 this had been 7.3 million people.


Telegram

A Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 17% of Ukrainians used
Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
. According to the pollster the number of its users in Ukraine had tripled since 2018.


VK

According to Alexa Internet ranking, in 2013 VK was the most visited website in Ukraine. According to the company, in January 2012 VK had more than 20 million registered users from Ukraine (out of a total of 155 million users worldwide); 6.6 million of them visited the site daily. , VK's mean daily audience in Ukraine grew to 9.35 million (according to LiveInternet), which amounted to 20.2% of the network's mean daily global traffic. On 16 May 2017, President Poroshenko signed a decree requiring providers to block access to VK, as it was claimed they participated in an information war against Ukraine. According to the Internet Association of Ukraine the share of Ukrainian Internet users who visit VK daily had fallen from 54% to 10% from September 2016 to September 2019. For 2019 VK appeared as the most visited social network in Ukraine according to
Alexa Alexa may refer to: Technology *Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon * Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service * Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera People * Alexa (name), a given name a ...
. The Internet Association of Ukraine claimed in November 2019 that Facebook was the most popular social network of Ukraine. A Research & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 5% of Ukrainians continued to use VK.In a first, internet bypasses TV as main news source for Ukrainians
UNIAN The UNIAN or Ukrainian Independent Information Agency of News ( uk, Українське Незалежне Інформаційне Агентство Новин, УНІАН, translit=Ukrayins'ke Nezalezhne Informatsiyne Ahentstvo Novyn) is a ...
(23 February 2021)


Internet-based commerce and trade


Online retail

According to the 2013 TEMAX index by the GfK, Ukraine's online house appliances and
consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...
market is the second fastest-growing in
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
(after the Turkish), with estimated 2012 size of . There were estimated 5,000–7,000 online shops in operation across the country, with about 1,300 of them working in the house appliances and
consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...
sector.


Online ticketing

E-ticketing is rapidly growing in Ukraine, being recently boosted by the
Ukrzaliznytsia Ukrainian Railways ( uk, Укрзалізниця, Ukrzaliznytsia, abbreviated as UZ) is a state-owned joint-stock company of rail transport in Ukraine, a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transportation in the country. I ...
national
railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
operator's implementation of its own online booking system, available in Ukrainian and English. Tickets for all regular
airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...
flights and vast majority of the intercity
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
services are also available for booking or purchase through independent online service providers.


Online banking

The vast majority of Ukraine's
bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...
s offer
online banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial ins ...
(usually free of charge). Payments for vast and growing number of services are accepted online (both through the
ATM card An ATM card is a payment card or dedicated payment card issued by a financial institution (i.e. a bank) which enables a customer to access their financial accounts via its and others' automated teller machines (ATMs) and to make approved point of ...
payments systems and the independent electronic money facilitators); all possible payments from a person are typically accepted online in big cities.


Internet censorship and surveillance

In December 2010 the
OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. The project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigato ...
found little or no evidence of Internet filtering in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which they test."ONI Country Profile: Ukraine"
OpenNet Initiative, 21 December 2010
In its ''Freedom on the Net'' report covering the period May 2012 through April 2013, Freedom House found the Internet in Ukraine to be "largely unhindered" and rated the Internet in Ukraine as "Free" with an overall score of 28 on a scale from 0 (most free) to 100 (least free). The report said that "there is no practice of institutionalized blocking or filtering, or a regulatory framework for censorship of content online", but "there have been attempts at creating legislation which could censor or limit content" and would "present indirect threats to freedom of information online.""Ukraine"
''Freedom on the Net 2013'', Freedom House, 30 September 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
Access to Internet content in Ukraine remains largely unfettered. Ukraine possesses relatively liberal legislation governing the Internet and access to information. The Law on Protection of Public Morals of 20 November 2003, prohibits the production and circulation of pornography; dissemination of products that propagandize war or spread national and religious intolerance; humiliation or insult to an individual or nation on the grounds of nationality, religion, or ignorance; and the propagation of "drug addiction, toxicology, alcoholism, smoking and other bad habits." While there are no government restrictions on access to the Internet, law enforcement bodies are known to monitor the Internet, at times without appropriate legal authority. There have been occasional agitations of interference by law enforcement agencies with prominent bloggers and online publications.
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 15 April 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2014.
The constitution and laws provide for freedom of speech and press. However, the government does not always respect these rights in practice. Individuals can criticize the government publicly and privately. Libel is considered a civil offense, and the law limits the amount of damages that may be claimed in libel lawsuits. The press can publish critical materials and opinions without penalty, and public officials enjoy fewer legal protections from criticism than other citizens. However, local media observers express concern over high monetary damages that at times were demanded and awarded for alleged libel. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, however, in practice authorities generally do not respect these prohibitions. For example: * On 17 August 2012, opposition politician
Oleksandr Turchynov Oleksandr Valentynovych Turchynov ( uk, Олександр Валентинович Турчинов; born 31 March 1964) is a Ukrainian politician, screenwriter, Baptist minister and economist. He is the former Secretary of the National S ...
alleged that law enforcement officials monitored and tracked opposition activists without legal permission. * On 20 August 2012, Serhiy Vlasenko, a lawyer for former prime minister
Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( uk, Юлія Володимирівна Тимошенко, ; Hrihyan ();Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( uk, Служба безпеки України, translit=Sluzhba bezpeky Ukrainy}) or SBU ( uk, СБУ, link=no) is the law enforcement authority and main intelligence and security agency of the Ukrainian ...
(SBU) may not conduct surveillance or searches without a court-issued warrant, citizens have the legal right to examine any dossier concerning them in the possession of the SBU and to recover losses resulting from an investigation, authorities generally do not respect these rights because implementing legislation has not been enacted, and many citizens are not aware of their rights or that authorities have violated their privacy. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has resulted in a major threat to press freedom in recent months. A May report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) found approximately 300 instances of violent attacks on the media in Ukraine since November 2013. Amid tensions with Russia, Kyiv is not tolerating any other points of view in the press. Under the impact of war and extreme social polarization, the democratic credentials of the pro-European Kiev government have been slipping as well. A crackdown on what authorities describe as “pro-separatist” points of view has triggered dismay among Western human rights monitors. For example, the September 11, 2014 shutdown of the independent Kyiv-based Vesti newspaper by the Ukrainian Security Service for “violating Ukraine's territorial integrity” brought swift condemnation from the international Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) broke into the office of a Kyiv-based digital newspaper “Vesti”, physically trapping reporters and ultimately shutting down the website. Vesti News's editor-in-chief Igor Guzhva wrote on his Facebook page that the news outlet had been raided by SBU. The SBU reportedly took all servers, kept staffers in a "hot corridor" and shut down the website completely. Guzhva said that the purpose of the raid was "to block our work.". “Journalists are not being let into their office," Guzhva wrote. "Those who were already inside at the moment of the raid are being kept in the building and are not allowed to use cell phones.” Guzhva said that this is the second time in just six months that the SBU has tried to "intimidate" its editors. He added that he is unsure of the reason for the raid, but suspects that it might have to do with a story the website recently published on the SBU chief's daughter. On 16 May 2017, President Poroshenko signed a decree requiring providers to block access to a number of Russian websites including four of the most popular websites in Ukraine:
VKontakte VK (short for its original name ''VKontakte''; russian: ВКонтакте, meaning ''InContact'') is a Russian online social media and social networking service based in Saint Petersburg. VK is available in multiple languages but it is predomin ...
,
Odnoklassniki Odnoklassniki ( rus, Одноклассники, t=Classmates) is a social network service used mainly in Russia and former Soviet Republics. The site was developed by Albert Popkov and launched on March 4, 2006. The website currently has more ...
,
Yandex Yandex LLC (russian: link=no, Яндекс, p=ˈjandəks) is a Russian multinational technology company providing Internet-related products and services, including an Internet search engine, information services, e-commerce, transportation, map ...
and
Mail.Ru VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. VK operates an e-mail s ...
. The president claimed they participated in an information war against Ukraine. Respondents in an online poll on the UNIAN site declared that 66% were “categorically against” the ban of Russian sites and another 11% said it would be easier to “ban the whole internet, like in North Korea”. The move was widely criticised as censorship, and Reporters Without Borders condemned the ban, calling it a "disproportionate measure that seriously undermines the Ukrainian people's right to information and freedom of expression."
RSF , May 23, 2017


See also

*
Economy of Ukraine The economy of Ukraine is an emerging, mixed economy located in Eastern Europe. It grew rapidly from 2000 until 2008 when the Great Recession began worldwide and reached Ukraine. The economy recovered in 2010 and continued improving until 2013 ...
* Telecommunications in Ukraine


References


Главными трендами Уанета станут электронная коммерция, мобильные приложения и медиа - участники рынка
by '' Korrespondent.net''
Эксперты: в Украине домашний доступ в Интернет есть у 40% граждан, - rbc.ua


External links

*
Internet Association of Ukraine
*
Watcher:
' - Ukrainian Internet business and marketing online newspaper *
ProIT
' - Ukrainian IT industry online newspaper *
AIN
' - Ukrainian IT industry online newspaper {{Ukraine topics