“What is HYIP?”: What questions are asked by Russians

Every year sociological services find outwhat problems worry Russians the most. Thus, according to the Levada Center summer survey, price growth, poverty, unemployment and corruption have become leaders, while concerns about democratic freedoms remain outsiders. But on the Internet, things are much more interesting - including because of the young age of the most active users. We decided to find out exactly how, and talked with the leaders of The Question and Mail.ru Answers services about the most popular issues in 2017 and collected the most discussed topics.

"Answers Mail.ru"

The most popular questions in the section "Society"

Who is a feminist?

What is a fetish?

How to explain for the gear?

The most popular questions in the section "Psychology"

What to do if you don't want to communicate with anyone?

Who is paranoid?

What does "exalted personality" mean?

The most popular questions in the section "Health"

What is homeopathy?

When do menstruations begin?

What is the difference between a general practitioner and a general practitioner?

Irina Kuznetsova

Project Manager "Answers Mail.ru"

Mail.ru Answers is the largest question and answer service for the Russian-language Internet. About 6 million users come to us daily, 90% from a search engine. We are high in extradition, because in the search and in the "Answers" people formulate questions in the same way.

About a quarter of our audience are schoolchildren and students. They actively ask questions, since the first answers can be obtained within 20-30 seconds. This is convenient both on the control and during homework. Because of this, the most popular question in 2017 was: "What is a phraseological unit?" More guys often ask how to write the words correctly or, say, who are the humanities. Another popular category is video games, which are expected to come alive in the summer and winter holidays. According to our feelings, the majority of schoolchildren in Russia play Counter Strike and Minecraft - they often ask about them.

Top questions rarely intersect with world events, but we pick up memes very well. The second most popular question in 2017 was: "What is a commoner?" If asking friends can be embarrassing, then we can do this almost anonymously. Users want to keep up with trends. In general, questions with the wording "What is it?" and "What does a word mean?" very popular.

More people are interested in puzzles that are walking on the VKontakte network, and they are trying to find answers from us. Many questions about the rumors that spread in social networks. For example, is it true that they disconnect "VKontakte", whether "deadly cosmic rays" are approaching the planet, will the refusal of the mobile phone help to survive and whether Dmitry Nagiyev and Gabe Newell died. Interest in Newell intersects with the enthusiasm for video games: users were afraid that the Steam platform would soon come to an end.

The motivation to earn points and pump your level is the most insignificant. People just like to help and receive thanks.

Between ourselves, we divide the sections into two types: flood and questionnaires. The first includes politics, education, culture, philosophy, esoterics, the second includes health, science and technology, banks and loans, legal advice, and travel. Philosophy is especially interested in people full of worldly wisdom, which they wish to share. There is nothing bad in this, but no one will ask what Nietzsche meant in one of his works.

People usually ask about politics in the following way: they quote and ask if other users agree with it. People come to the Politics section to let off steam rather than learn something new, so you shouldn’t make serious conclusions from their questions and answers. But the views of those or other topics suggest that people are looking for a search in principle. For example, one of the top questions for 2017 in the “Society” section is feminism.

There are categories in which people come with specific problems - usually it is "Beauty and Health", and specifically - the subsection "Diseases and Medicines". Users ask whether it is not dangerous to drink such a drug, how much to keep a thermometer, how to raise the temperature (these are, of course, schoolchildren too).

This year we have attracted several experts who were more qualified than ordinary users. Before that, we asked the users which specialists they would like to see first. The most popular were doctors, then psychologists, in third place - lawyers. Now the project has a doctor and a lawyer, and users trust them, tell each other about experts, ask personal questions. The doctor, for example, is asked to find out what the diagnosis means, they ask for help to decipher the handwriting of doctors and even describe the symptoms. The trust of users to experts is a good sign for us, and next year we plan to attract other specialists.

We recently interviewed users — figured out why they were helping other people. It turned out that the motivation to earn points and pump their level is the most insignificant. People just like to help and receive thanks.

The question

The most popular questions in the section "Sex"

What is your favorite porn movie?

What porno studio do you like best?

How was your first sex?

The most popular questions in the section "Psychology"

What books that broaden the horizons, you advise to read?

What serious psychological tests can be done on the Internet?

What cool rules of life do you know?

Ksenia Semenova

Chief Editor of The Question

The Question has existed since 2015 - by the end of 2016, we had about 1.5 million unique views, and now this figure has grown to 5.5 million users monthly. So, it is precisely those questions that appeared in 2017 that have become the most popular of all time - simply because there have been more users themselves. The main part of the audience comes to us from search engines and social networks. The first dozens of the most popular Yandex queries, Mail.ru and Google, differ little. Most of them are devoted to social networks, memes, celebrities. In addition, all the tops include porn. Our task is for people who have come according to the conditional “porn” to get interested in other questions or answer this question so that they leave with new knowledge and the feeling that it is here that one must return.

People come to us, for example, by searching for: "What is a commoner?" or "Where did the meme Mr. Dudets come from?" The recent very popular question: "Where did the date of November 5, 2018 come from and why does everyone consider it the date of the new revolution?" They often began to look at the questions: “What should I do if a staff member demands that I show him photos on my phone?”, “How do I know what people are watching me on the Internet?”, “Why did Roma die An Englishman from LSP?” can not put a router? ". Our top 100 is very heterogeneous, the conclusion here can be made one: people on the wave of HYIP come after one, are interested in other topics and continue to live on the site with their questions and answers.

We had a huge spike in attendance in February, when we launched the next round of the game "Blue Whale" - many teenagers visited the site. In order to cope with this delicate and at the same time very popular topic and to help children, we put all the questions together and marked them with emergency psychological assistance tag EMERCOM of Russia, and brought in experts to the discussion. It turned out that a very hot topic, which began as strange spam, has become a socially significant material, in which you can still find important information on how to get psychological help if someone calls you to commit suicide.

Of course, HYIP plays a big role. One of the most widely read questions, by the way, on our site is what it means: "What is HYIP." Google and Yandex considered that we have the best explanation, and now, if you make such a request, the search engine will answer our answer in a beautifully designed card - there are a lot of users coming from it, so it will be difficult to kill it with other questions in the top. But if you look from week to week, questions about memes, topical issues such as Ukraine, elections, Kirill Serebrennikov’s affairs, and addressed to specific companies and people, come to the top.

At the end of 2016, we made an editorial board that works with a news agenda - we began to make a current selection on the main page, to set the topics of the day. We noticed that users were drawn into this game, began to ask more questions and generally discuss the latest events more actively. Some now go to The Question to read the news, although we don’t even have the media, but a media service. People ask a lot of interesting questions, and we just help to find the best answers. For example, recently asked how people now live in the DNI and LC. After that, we shared the issue on social networks and asked the residents to respond - as a result, many interesting testimonies gathered and this material was later quoted in Kommersant.

When you read the agenda in the media, you get a cut of editorial opinion. Working in The Question, you better understand what really interests people. This may be a completely unexpected angle of view. So, while the media discussed the actions of Clinton and Trump, we had popular questions: "Who are the electors in the US?" if there are so many people in America who oppose them? " People ask a lot of clarifying questions that the editor will not think about. So, combining easy editorial control and unmoderated user interest, we create a more complete picture of what is happening and collect a unique knowledge base.

For questions on The Question, you can track social trends among young people: when there were protest movements in the spring of 2017, the activity of schoolchildren and teenagers was tremendous

Answers to questions we and users are looking differently. The site has this functionality: by asking a question, you can invite experts who are offered by the system to discuss. Experts get into the pool of those who answered questions on the topic before and scored a rating due to likes. Questions that require the collection of opinions from participants or eyewitnesses to the events, we immediately launch in social networks. So we are faster than any media get a reliable response from the spot. When we understand that we have access to an expert who will add a unique opinion or answer the question best, then we take a comment by the editors.

An important part of our service is straight lines. They can start and users, and companies. Thanks to them, you can ask questions directly to the employees of VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex.Dzenu and others. At the same time it is the person who responds, which increases the level of trust. Recently, they have also launched the compilation format. Now there are two series: Friday on a relevant topic (the last one was about domestic violence) and the Monday “Working moments”, where we reveal such unexpected professions as the keeper of elephants, for example.

There are 24 supertemes in The Question (there are hundreds of them, but we categorized them). Permanent leader - "Psychology", which includes questions about relationships and self-development. The second theme is "Education." Here are the most readable questions about self-study, English, and opportunities for students abroad. The third most popular topic is "Sex", about which we strive to make super-quality content. We involve sexologists, doctors, researchers - on this topic it is important to speak not at the level of teenage chuckles. It is especially pleasant that the “History” section is very popular, where we managed to collect an excellent community of experts, teachers and interested people.

People answer questions because they want to share knowledge. Everyone has his own tasks: someone is just interested in telling, someone needs to learn how to write and formulate thoughts, someone wants to express his opinion, which is impossible to publish elsewhere. There are many additional benefits here - for example, doctors not only share knowledge, but also attract new clients.

For questions on The Question, you can track social trends among young people (the core of our audience is people from 18 to 25 years old). When there were protest movements in the spring of 2017, the activity of schoolchildren and teenagers was tremendous: they asked their questions, shared their opinions and concerns about the current situation. It was a cut of the actual opinions of the audience, which had not previously had a single platform for expression.