RUTUBE is a Russian video platform. It includes a library of licensed content including movies, series, cartoons, shows, and live broadcasts. It also hosts blogs, podcasts, game streams, and educational content. RUTUBE has web, iOS, Android and Smart TV versions. Its audience increased from 7.7 million in January 2022 to over 50 million in March 2022. Service model RUTUBE offers free access to content and gains profit through advertising. All downloaded content is checked by moderators to block anything that is pornographic, insulting, spam, advocates drug use or violence, or is otherwise abusive and in violation of established rules. The platform uses Content ID for copyright protection. Since 2007, the service has supported built-in media players and creation of whole-scale sections on third-party websites via an API. To ensure the posting of legal content, the platform uses a widget which enables navigation by release, season, and episode for TV shows and series. As part of an affiliate program, RUTUBE shares income from advertisements with the owners of resources who host the player. History Incorporation of the service and search for investors, 2006–2007 RUTUBE was launched by Oleg Volobuyev and Mikhail Paulkin—entrepreneurs from Oryol and co-owners of a popular multiplayer browser online game based on Dozory, a franchise of novels and short stories by Sergey Lukiyanenko. In an interview with the Business Journal and the iTV channel, the founders said that they had been working on the video service since 2004–2005. Mr. Volobuyev said that the I-vision.ru service, which they had developed, was an ActiveX-based browser plugin supporting p2p video chats and streams and could capture videos from devices connected to a (personal computer) PC and process those on the client side. He said that ActiveX control elements created a risk of malware infiltration, so the team had to switch to Flash Video. By the time, YouTube, a US video hosting service, had gained popularity, and the Russian developers characterized their service as Russian YouTube. RUTUBE received the status of a video hosting service in 2006. In 2007, the founders employed Askar Tuganbayev as the producer of RUTUBE; previously, he had managed ATB Internet projects and worked as a producer at O2TV and Gameland TV. While staying in Moscow, Tuganbayev built relationships with partners and looked for an investor for the company. RUTUBE attracted some private investors, Mangrove Capital Partners Venture Fund and Gazprom Media Group, which was entering the Internet