This spring, the tax authorities filed claims against several popular Russian bloggers at once – Blinovskaya, Mitroshina and Chekalina. And this is likely not the end of the matter. How much and on what bloggers (or “infobusinessmen”) earn in Russia – in the material of the “Company”.
In total, the nine most successful “infobusinessmen” in Russia earned more than 4.4 billion rubles in 2022. Revenue growth for the year was 24%, according to a joint study by the Association of Bloggers and Agencies and the LiveDune service.
1. Valeria Chekalina
Revenues in 2022 — 1 billion rubles
Valeria Chekalina has the largest income: last year she earned 1 billion rubles. The blogger has more than 10.4 million subscribers on Instagram*, and about 692 thousand on Telegram. Chekalina gained an audience through content about motherhood and fitness, and then began to hold weight loss marathons. Participation in them could cost an average of 2-5 thousand rubles.
In March, Valeria was charged with tax evasion for 300 million rubles. Her husband Artem Chekalin is also involved in the case (for complicity). Commenting on the accusations, Chekalina said that making mistakes is “normal for any business.” She added that she was ready to pay off the tax debt.
2. Alexandra Mitroshina
Revenues in 2022 — 650 million rubles
Since 2011, Mitroshina has been running a personal blog on Instagram, where she talks about feminism, travel, sports, a healthy lifestyle and more. Now in the social network about 4.2 million people are subscribed to it. The cost of advertising on her blog in March was estimated at 4.6 million rubles, the price for a post in Telegram was 330 thousand rubles.
In March 2022, Mitroshina moved to Dubai. There, the girl owns an apartment worth $ 300 thousand.
Like the previous member of the list, Mitroshina is suspected of tax evasion. As an individual entrepreneur, she applied the simplified taxation system and did not switch to the general one after the amount of her earnings exceeded the allowable limit.
A criminal case was opened against her for tax evasion for 120 million rubles. In early May, Mitroshina announced that she had paid off her debt in full.
3. Ayaz Shabutdinov
Revenues in 2022 — 650 million rubles
A native of Izhevsk, by the age of 23, managed to become a co-owner of 25 companies, in 2014 they earned 30 million rubles in net profit. One of the businesses is the Coffee Like chain of mini-coffee shops (there were 192 outlets), which the entrepreneur sold (according to him) in 2018 for 150 million rubles.
In 2015, Shabutdinov founded the Like Center business school in Moscow. She sells entrepreneurship development courses. According to the results of the second quarter of 2021, it took first place in the list of the largest EdTech companies in Russia – with a revenue of approximately 1.8 billion rubles.
Back in 2013, Shabutdinov became popular on the Internet thanks to his community on VKontakte, where he shared tips on how to earn “2 million rubles a year.” A new wave of fame hit him in the summer of 2022, when the infobusinessman began to actively promote new courses, and annoying advertising on social networks turned into a meme.
4. Oksana Samoilova
Revenues in 2022 — 600 million rubles
Oksana Samoilova is a former model, wife of rapper Dzhigan and one of the most popular bloggers on Instagram (15.5 million subscribers). Over the years, she tried to develop the business in several directions: clothing stores Mira Sezar and IAmSpecial, as well as the Fit For You fitness app. All of them were unsuccessful and soon closed.
Now Samoilova owns the El❜cosmo cosmetology clinic, the Family1 nanny recruiting agency, and the Sammy Beauty cosmetics brand. The latter business brings the blogger the main income: in 2022, the company’s revenue amounted to 921 million rubles. At the same time, Samoilova’s cosmetics are often criticized because of their similarity with Kylie Skin products from Kylie Jenner.
5. Gohar Avetisyan
Revenues in 2022 — 500 million rubles
Gohar Avetisyan is the most famous makeup artist blogger among the Russian audience. She was born in Armenia and, as a teenager, moved to Moscow, where she began to earn money as a makeup artist at weddings and at the same time develop a makeup blog on Instagram. It has 11.6 million subscribers today.
In her own words, by the age of 18 she had earned her first million. In 2012, Gohar became the owner of a beauty salon on Nikolskaya Street in the center of Moscow and opened a make-up school. At the end of last year, its income amounted to about 500 million rubles.
6. Elena Blinovskaya
Revenues in 2022 — 450 million rubles
Elena Blinovskaya is called the “guru of desire marathons.” The blogger launched the first such marathon in 2015, it was a course of lectures and practical exercises on personal growth. The course lasts a month, and its participants during this time complete certain tasks and send “homework” to the curators for verification.
The cost of participation is from 3 to 10 thousand rubles. The turnover of media marathons is estimated at 2 billion rubles a year. The total value of the property of the Blinovskaya family, according to the Company’s estimates, is about 1 billion rubles.
At the end of April, Blinovskaya was charged with tax evasion on an especially large scale – we are talking about 918 million rubles.
7. Victoria Bonya
Revenues in 2022 — 250 million rubles
Victoria Bonya gained fame thanks to her participation in the reality show Dom-2 in the mid-2000s. In recent years, the girl has been actively maintaining an account on Instagram (almost 10 million subscribers), calls herself a “socialite” and is engaged in coaching – she conducts personal growth seminars.
In particular, Bonya sells courses called “On Energy, Limiting Beliefs and the Art of Being a Woman!”, “A Woman in a Million” and “I am a Woman Goddess.”
In 2020, Bonya became the heroine of memes because of her statements about the COVID pandemic: she talked about the existence of a “link” between the virus outbreak and 5G network towers and supported the “chipping” theory. Now the girl lives in Monaco and is raising a daughter from the heir of the Irish billionaire Alexander Smerfit.
