$ 10 billion in the social networks. FBK experts assessed the economic losses from people’s communication in Russia

The analysts of FBK Auditors and Consultants assessed the losses of the country economy from the activity of Russian people in the social networks amounting from 281.7 up to 311.5 billion roubles a year. 

‘The idea was to assess the damage from the untargeted use of time’, says Igor Nikolayev, Director of the FBK Institute of Strategic Analysis. ‘It is certainly a rough estimate. In order to give exact figures a detailed analytical study of the social networks is required with the time data for every segment of the audience, with the information about the salaries and wages of such employees, etc. However our estimation allows judging about the scale of losses.’ The FBK experts based their assessments on the fact that by the end of 2012 the number of social network users in Russia reached 51.8 million people (there is a much higher estimate of 57.8 million people, though). By the data of СomScore, in 2012 Russian people spent, on the average, about 25.6 minutes a day in the social networks (12.8 hours per month), including their work hours. ‘Such inappropriate use of working hours means quite definite economic losses (the employer actually pays for the employee’s “sitting” in the social network),’ marks Igor Nikolayev, to say nothing of the fact that according to some (controversial) studies that is conducive to a substantial reduction in labor productivity  - to restore productivity after the break takes over 20 minutes.’ 

According to FBK calculations, every active in social networking employee lost 3187.2 minutes or 53.1 hours of the working time in 2012. The FBK analysts calculated the lower and upper bounds of possible losses based on the structure of social networking by the employees of different industries and on the basis of average figures for the economics as a whole. In the lower bound the economic damage amounted to 281.7 billion roubles, and in the upper – 311.5 billion roubles. 

If we proceed from the structure of social networking by the employees of different industries (here the wage level for one or another type of economic activity is essentially important), then the greater economic damage was caused by those who work in the field of finance and real estate transactions, lease and provision of services (67.9 billion roubles), the ‘second best’ are those who work in education (39.8 billion roubles), in the third place are those in the state administrations and the military security services and social insurance (36.6 billion roubles). Most insignificant economic losses are caused by the active social networking people in Russia engaged in farming and forestry (0.9 billion roubles).

‘Against the background of similar estimates in the USA and Great Britain, in Russia the economic losses from social networking do not seem so great (in the USA the annual losses for the economy from social networking are estimated to be 650 billion roubles). But compared with some of the expenditure items of the Federal Budget, Russian losses are very big. They are comparable with the annual appropriations towards transportation or with half of the Federal Budget expenditures on education,’ marks I. Nikolayev. 

According to FBK experts, the problem of social networking in Russia is not so burning so far, though the situation might change in the future. ‘The employers have already realized the seriousness of the problem and even take certain measures. We can predict that they will have to intensify their efforts to resist their workers’ ‘sitting’ in the social networks, particularly taking into consideration the fact that in Russian economy the issue of increasing the productivity of labor is still relevant,’  summarizes I. Nikolayev.