Ukraine is sixth in the world in terms of digital piracy: what sites Ukrainians choose
17 December 2024 08:57
Ukraine ranks sixth in the world in terms of pirated content consumption, behind only the United States, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Canada. This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to uablocklist.
According to the web analytics service SimilarWeb, the pirated UAKino website is the third most visited resource among Ukrainians, behind only Google and YouTube.
Among the 50 most visited websites in Ukraine as of early December 2024, eight are pirated, while no legal streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime are on the list.
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The most popular pirate sites
The estimated number of visits to popular pirate websites in Ukraine:
- UAKino – 122,873,400
- Filmix – 40 407 625
- Rezka – 22 463 244
- Kinogo – 21 501 250
- Kinobar – 12,405,000
Since pirate sites often change domains to avoid blocking, the real figures can be much higher. For example, the Filmix service operates on six different domains at once.
Total number of visits to different domains:
- UAKino – 127 939 800
- HDRezka – 83 307 599
- Filmix – 41,209,383
- Kinogo – 34 141 666
- Kinokrad – 6,467,792
For comparison, the attendance of licensed services:
- Netflix – 4,311,752
- Apple TV – 74,228
- Amazon Prime Video – 527,825
- Megogo – 6,288,821
- Sweet.tv – 2 359 200
- Kyivstar TV – 2 020 992
Based on this data, views of pirated resources in Ukraine exceed legal ones by more than 18 times.
Digital piracy and the fight against it
Digital piracy includes the illegal distribution and use of media content, software, books, and other digital materials. According to copyright organizations, more than 30% of Internet users worldwide regularly consume pirated content. This results in annual losses of billions of dollars for legitimate content owners, and is also believed to reduce the quality of creative and technological products due to loss of investment.
Governments and rights holders are actively implementing measures to combat digital piracy. In particular, copyright laws are being adopted, such as the EU Digital Marketplace Directive, which obliges platforms to remove pirated content. Special organizations, such as the Motion Picture Association (MPA) or BSA, play an important role in monitoring infringements and initiating legal action. In many countries, domains of pirated websites are blocked, and search engines remove links to such resources. However, the fight is often complicated by the speed with which pirates adapt, changing domains or using VPNs to hide their activities.
One of the most effective methods of combating piracy is to promote legal platforms and available content. For example, streaming services such as Netflix, Spotify, or Amazon Prime offer subscription models at an affordable price, which significantly reduces the motivation of users to turn to illegal sources. Additionally, campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of piracy teach consumers to value the work of authors. At the same time, some countries still face the problem of access to legal content due to high prices or technical limitations, which keeps the demand for pirate sites alive.
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