VK is the second largest social network service in Europe after Facebook, with more than 100 million users. It is most popular in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Belarus. It is similar to Facebook, as VKontakte allows users to message their friends privately or publicly, create groups and public pages, share and tag images and videos, and play games. VKontakte is the fourth-most visited site in Russia.

VKontakte launched in October 2006. At the time, users were limited to university students who had received invites to join, similar to the beginnings of Facebook. By February 2007, the site reached 100,000 members and became the second largest social networking site in Russia.  In 2011, invitations were no longer required in order to join, and the website was opened to the public . The majority of VKontakte users are young men and women between the ages of 18 and 24.