Marketplaces lost up to 10% of users due to VPN restrictions

Marketplaces lost up to 10% of users due to VPN restrictions

Russian marketplaces saw a drop in user activity and sales in April after restrictions were introduced on VPN traffic throughput, Kommersant writes.

🔹Data from Digital Budget on marketplace user traffic in 2026 shows that in April compared with March, Wildberries' mobile web traffic fell by 10%, Ozon's and Yandex Market's by 3%, and Avito's by 1.5%. At the same time, desktop traffic over the same period declined only for Wildberries, by 6%.

🔹According to sellers' estimates, the drop in revenue in April ranged from 3% to 30% compared with March, and they also directly link this to VPN blocking. The real losses may have amounted to 7 billion rubles.

🔹The Association of Internet Trade Companies said that measures such as restricting VPN traffic “unequivocally make it harder to use Russian services both for buyers inside the country and abroad.” They weaken the positions of domestic platforms in the international e-commerce market, where there is serious competitive struggle for Russian buyers.

🔵At the end of March, the Ministry of Digital Development threatened to strip companies of the right to preinstall apps and of draft deferments if their services were to work through VPN. Companies that do not block VPN traffic may also be excluded from the “white list” of websites accessible when the internet is shut off.

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