Today, almost every person has his own page in any social network. In Russia and the CIS countries, Odnoklassniki has gained quite a lot of popularity. The social network is currently owned by Mail. Ru Group. The project appeared in the distant March 2006. Now Odnoklassniki is the seventh most popular in Russia, and the fifty-fifth worldwide.
Of course, many are familiar with the presented social network, but only a few know who founded it. The father of Odnoklassniki is Popkov Albert Mikhailovich. This article presents his biography and the history of the appearance of the social network.
Albert Popkov: biography
Many are familiar with the film "The Matrix". It was this film that made it clear that each "matrix" has its own "architect". Social networks also do not appear out of thin air. After all, someone develops, promotes and attracts millions of users who spend 24 hours a day on their favorite network. These sites include Odnoklassniki, whose audience at the beginning of 2013 exceeded two hundred million people. However, the article will focus more on a person,who created such a huge network.
Early years
Albert Popkov was born on September 26, 1972. The place of birth is the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
At the age of three, Albert Popkov moved to Moscow with his family. He studied at school rather mediocrely and left it after the eighth grade. Then he entered a technical school and at the same time began to earn extra money as a programmer at NIISchetMash. There, Albert did quite well. He developed software for computers, which in the Soviet Union were in almost every school for teaching children computer science.
90s
In the early 90s, Albert Popkov graduated. In the future, he began to try many professions and work in various places. It is known that he managed to work in a pencil factory and as a salesman. In the mid-90s, he began to seriously engage in web design. It was then that he created his first serious websites for several large companies.
Early 2000s: emergence of Odnoklassniki
In the late 90s, Albert Popkov received an offer to work for a large foreign company. The programmer agreed and went to England. By the way, he spent a long seven years outside Russia. At first, he worked in the camp of ordinary programmers and was engaged in the development of a search engine. Subsequently, Albert Popkov, the creator of Odnoklassniki, took the position of director of the software development department. Here under his leadership were fiftyprogrammers.
The idea of creating a social network came to Popkov in the last months of his work at this company. He spent his free time from his main job developing the site.
Return to Russia
The end of work for a foreign company came in 2006. The new project required more time and effort from Popkov. Albert Mikhailovich believed that his new development would certainly bring income, and decided to completely switch to its improvement. He soon left England and returned to Moscow. Already in the capital, he comes to the decision to create OOO Odnoklassniki.
At first, the project required huge financial outlays, according to Albert Popkov. His fortune is now quite large, and then he often had to spend a lot of money out of his own pocket on the development of a social network. The turning point in the life of Odnoklassniki is the appearance of an investor from Riga. It is at this moment that the accelerated growth of the site and its promotion begins. The staff of the company's programmers is expanding significantly.
2007
By 2007, the audience of "Odnoklassniki" is significantly increasing. Albert Popkov, whose photo has already been seen in many magazines and on television, decides to transfer the site to a new "engine". Soon the resource was ready to receive even more visitors. In the same year, the project begins to receive a variety of awards. In a fairly short period of time, we managed to double the site's audience, to four million.
The social network's revenues are starting to run into millions of dollars. "Odnoklassniki" was able to get into the top ten most popular resources in Russia. Only such giants as Google, Yandex, YouTube, Mile and Vkontakte could overtake them.
2008
The creator of the site "Odnoklassniki" Albert Popkov did not stop improving the project, and the growth in the number of users did not stop. In 2008, in every office you could see people on whose monitor this social network was open. Even directors of companies said that they began to communicate with their employees through Odnoklassniki, as it is really simple and fast.
In the same period, Albert Popkov, a genius in web design, creates a new project "Compare.ru". Now he began to devote quite a lot of time to the new brainchild, but he did not forget about Odnoklassniki. Sravni.ru is a site that allows the user to compare a huge variety of products, businesses, and so on. The main income of the resource comes from advertising placed on the pages, as well as from companies that have received the status of recommended in the resource. However, a scandal broke out to work normally on website promotion.
i-CD Publishing scandal
In the same year, the company that Albert Mikhailovich Popkov worked for until 2006 filed a lawsuit with a British court. The company and several affiliates believed that Popkov was obliged to give the social network to them,as well as the funds that managed to earn on it. The reason was that Albert Mikhailovich did not fulfill the terms of the employment contract. After all, he began to develop Odnoklassniki while still an employee of i-CD Publishing. And since the company is also engaged in the creation of online projects, this was the reason for filing a lawsuit against Popkov. Subsequently, the parties agreed to the world.
2009
July 2009 was the moment when "Odnoklassniki" took the fifth place in terms of coverage of the Internet audience. The growth in the number of users does not stop. Many companies are faced with the problem that their subordinates began to spend most of their time in this social network. In order to protect their employees from visiting Odnoklassniki, the directors instructed their system administrators to cut off access to the social network.
However, soon there was information that the site was also released in the version for mobile devices. Regularly, Odnoklassniki began to receive improvements and additions to ensure a more comfortable stay of the audience on the pages.
2010
By 2010, the audience of Odnoklassniki users grew to forty-five million people. Most of the visitors were between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. In the spring of the same year, the first games appeared in the project, which were in the testing stage.
The end of summer is good news for many future users as registration fees have been abolished. Accordingly, the influx of people went with a vengeance. At the end of December, the audience was able to make video calls.
2011
The first innovation on the site happened in April. The developers have made an addition, thanks to which it became possible to divide your friends into groups. At the end of May, another novelty was introduced, which allowed the Odnoklassniki audience to log in using their username and password on other resources.
On the first day of June, users were able to listen and download music thanks to a new section. In the same summer, the developers released an add-on that allows you to link three bank cards to your account.
2012
In April 2012, the number of registered users reached one hundred and thirty-five million. Later, the developers added the ability to make purchases in Odnoklassniki with a zero account. The funds were debited when the balance was replenished.
In October, information was received that the resource would allow users to start the radio. A day later, it was announced that the audience of "Odnoklassniki" can independently customize the style of their page.
2013
This year has been very good for Odnoklassniki. On the first day, it was found that the number of users exceeded two hundred million people. Forty million users visited the social network daily.
At the end of February, the ability to create polls in communities was added, and inAt the beginning of March, the Armenian language appeared on the site. At the beginning of April, there was a serious failure, as a result of which Odnoklassniki was unavailable during the day. It was possible to completely cope with the problem in three days.
At the end of June, a version of the site for visually impaired people appeared. That same summer, Odnoklassniki managed to get into the top ten global social networks. Soon the site acquired the English language, it became possible to search for acquaintances by date of birth.
Later years
The next years for Odnoklassniki are the best. The number of visitors to the resource is constantly growing. Developers regularly release innovations for the project, which bring a lot of new features.
Albert Mikhailovich Popkov himself continued to improve the first development, as well as Sravni.ru. Over the years of its existence, the project has developed significantly and received a lot of positive feedback from users.
