Turkish BiP Messenger Audience in Russia Surges 650 Times in One Year Amid Foreign App Adoption
Russian users continue exploring foreign messaging services even as initial hype subsides. According to MTS AdTech, demand for overseas platforms rose 50 percent in the first quarter and 26 percent in the second quarter. The desire for backup communication channels remains, yet users now install apps more selectively rather than downloading everything available.
The standout performer of the quarter, according to Kommersant, was the Turkish messenger BiP. Between April and July its Russian monthly active audience grew 120 percent, reaching 4.3 million users. For comparison, only 6,600 Russians used the service a year earlier, meaning BiP has moved far beyond statistical noise.
KakaoTalk from South Korea added 80 percent and now counts 1.26 million users. WeChat grew 17 percent while Gem Space increased 11 percent. Mobile operators report similar trends, though with varying figures: MegaFon recorded 32 percent growth for BiP and 98 percent for KakaoTalk, while T2 observed fivefold and 3.5-fold increases respectively.
The most popular foreign messenger remains American Imo with 12.2 million users, though it added just 1 percent over the quarter. Blocked services SimpleX and Discord fared worse, losing 41 percent and 8 percent of their audiences. No mass exodus from familiar platforms has occurred yet.
Domestic services continue to dominate: VKontakte reaches 94.8 million monthly users, MAX has 86.2 million, and Telegram counts 75.7 million. Russians typically install foreign messengers to stay in touch with relatives abroad, for experimentation, or as backup options. Experts predict further audience fragmentation, with users keeping multiple messengers on their devices, so no single winner has emerged.
Related articles
Microsoft Adds Option to Completely Disable Copilot Key in Windows 11
Microsoft is testing a new setting in experimental builds of Windows 11 that lets home users fully disable the dedicated Copilot key on compatible keyboards. The option, labeled Do nothing, appears in the Bluetooth and devices section under Keyboard settings and allows users to reassign the key away from launching the AI assistant. Enthusiast phantomofearth discovered the feature, which currently sits alongside choices for launching Microsoft 365 Copilot, performing a search, or executing a custom action. The rollout is gradual, with some Windows Insiders receiving the setting earlier than others. The Copilot key was introduced on new Windows laptops in 2024 as a replacement for the right Ctrl key to highlight AI PCs. Earlier this year Microsoft had already promised limited support for restoring the original Ctrl function, while users previously relied on third-party tools such as NoCopilotKey to prevent accidental activation.
Building Trusted TLS in Kubernetes Without InsecureSkipVerify Using cert-manager and trust-manager
The article explains how to establish verifiable TLS across a Kubernetes cluster running on Talos with Cilium networking and Linstor storage, eliminating reliance on InsecureSkipVerify flags. It details the creation of an internal self-signed CA via cert-manager, using a selfSigned bootstrap issuer to generate the CA certificate before deploying a production ClusterIssuer. trust-manager then distributes only the public CA bundle as ConfigMaps across all namespaces, allowing workloads to validate certificates without exposing private keys. For external services, an ACME issuer integrates with Let's Encrypt and Gateway API to automate HTTP-01 challenges. The guide also covers kubelet server certificate rotation through serverTLSBootstrap and the kubelet-serving-cert-approver controller, which validates CSR requests against Node objects before approval. These steps ensure mutual trust for internal services, publicly trusted certificates for internet-facing endpoints, and verified kubelet connections for the API server and monitoring systems.
Designing and Implementing Private Cloud Security Across Geographically Distributed Data Centers
The article shares practical experience in designing and deploying protection for a private cloud hosted across two geographically separated data center sites. The project aimed to achieve service resilience, meet information security requirements, and maintain manageable infrastructure. While theoretical designs often combine standard best practices such as high availability, network segmentation, next-generation firewalls, and dynamic routing, real-world implementation revealed significant conflicts between architectural components. Multiple contractor teams participated, each bringing different visions for network architecture and security controls, leading to complex negotiations and compromises. The process evolved into an engineering puzzle where proposed solutions had to be integrated into a functional, scalable system despite technical limitations and differing priorities. The full piece focuses on the journey from an idealized design to practical deployment through iterative problem-solving rather than deep technical dives.
VK Tech Adds Multi-Level Memory to AI Agents in VK AI Space Platform
VK Tech has introduced a four-layer memory system for AI agents within its VK AI Space platform, enabling them to retain context, reuse materials, and incorporate past employee edits instead of restarting tasks from scratch. The new capability is expected to reduce the share of repeatedly solved tasks by 40–50 percent. Memory layers include session memory for current dialogues, user memory for employee profiles and preferences, project memory for specific project materials and rules, and agent memory for recording successful approaches and human corrections. This transforms AI agents from short-term tools into consistent team participants that can draw on accumulated corporate knowledge during tasks such as tender preparation, incident investigation, and product launches. Access remains strictly limited to information the collaborating employee is authorized to view, with all data stored inside the company perimeter and never sent to external services. Users can review and delete stored information at any time. VK Tech believes the feature will convert individual specialist experience into a persistent organizational asset that carries forward across tasks.