To be seriosuly, nobody would use that platform even there hadn’t been any ads, because competing with YouTube is not an easy fit.

I should probably be happy that Rutube and VK Video gain popularity as the regional alternatives to the monopolist which gets more aggressive each day… if not that popularity has just been inflated by bought-out bloggers and comics from Putin’s oligarch owned channels like TNT being directed to cease their YouTube presence, just so the government could have their own “YouTube without team Navalny”.

but yeah, being more shitty than YouTube at delivering ads is not an easy fit, too!