Our research expedition consists of three research groups who will each research a specific aspect of the differences between the Netherlands and Russia. We have put focus on socially and technologically relevant subjects. In today’s world social media and mobile applications have experienced a huge growth in demand and use, our research will all show an element of this in today’s Russia.

Below you find an introduction for each research.

How do Russians use social media?

Social Media have quickly grown to be part of everyday life. Not only of the younger generations, but they have been embraced by many. People in the Netherlands use social media for all sorts of different things, from showing where we are, arranging to meet friends and even finding jobs. We have specific networks that are popular, devices that we use and places we do all of our digital socialising at. We are interested in finding out ‘How do Russians use social media?’. We are interested in which sites and devices, how often, what is shared, work or private and are there risks? We will ask students and young professionals at leading companies about how they use social media.

Customer Intimacy by means of Social Media in Russia

Companies increasingly manifest themself on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. With as goal to lower the distance between customer and supplier, which in turn increases the knowledge the supplier has about the customer. With this information the supplier can make decision to better adapt his product to increase the likelihood the buyer will return to the supplier. In the Netherlands we have experienced an increase in the use of social media by companies in the communication with their customers. If we look at some communication we can conclude that the communication is not only of formal nature, but also of informal nature. This strategy is applied by both typical Dutch companies and international companies. This brings forward the question; is this trend is also visible in other countries, especially countries where the culture differs from our culture in many ways such as Russia?

Russian app culture

Smartphones are more present than ever and for many of us part of our everyday life. Smartphone users are online 24/7 and use apps for just about everything. Because people spend more and more time on their smartphones these apps are also a very big part of our life. But are the way we use these apps defined by the people who use them or are we as users defined by our apps? And do people in The Netherlands use their smartphone in the same way as people in a different culture? The way people use these apps on their smartphone might differ from country to country. And if this is the case can we speak of something like an app culture? These questions intrigue our group. For our study trip we have visited Moscow and this was the perfect opportunity to get answers on some of these questions.