Karina Kasparyants began her career as an influencer in her teens, making YouTube videos of beauty tips, shopping hauls and glimpses into her everyday life as a student in Moscow before also embracing Instagram, where she gradually built up a following of more than 2 million people.
At the time, major foreign brands were spending heavily in the Russian market, and Kasparyants was able to build lucrative relationships with companies, including Samsung Electronics and H&M. ¡°Back then, I wanted to pour all of my energy into Instagram because that¡¯s where the biggest brands were spending their advertising budgets and inviting influencers on press tours,¡± she said.
By 2021, the size of the influencer marketing business in Russia had reached 15 billion rubles ($187 million), according to data from digital influencer marketing platform Perfluence. Russia¡¯s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 threatened to disrupt that. Many Western brands pulled out of the Russian market. Some U.S.-owned social media companies changed their policies to limit Russian users¡¯ ability to receive payments. In March 2022, the Russian authorities banned Instagram, as part of broader restrictions on freedom of expression.
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