Avito's 2025 Year in Review: Regulation, Artificial Intelligence, and New Business Opportunities

Regulation as a Point of Leverage

The year 2025 marked a turning point in many ways for the platform economy. The key industry event, as Gavrilenko notes, was the adoption this summer of the "Platform Economy Law." The document established basic rules of the game for digital platforms and their users and effectively opened a new stage in the market's development.

"This is an important step in the evolution of the digital economy, and its provisions will already be influencing the daily operations of platforms, buyers, and sellers next year. A conceptual framework has been defined, principles of legal regulation for the platform economy have been established, and the specifics of interaction between intermediary digital platform operators and partners have been outlined."

The main challenge facing the industry in 2025 was precisely the discussion and preparation of the law while taking into account the interests of all market participants. The task was to ensure transparent and comfortable conditions for sellers and buyers on one hand, while avoiding excessive barriers to platform economy growth on the other. According to Avito's assessment, this balance was successfully achieved.

Artificial Intelligence — From Trend to Infrastructure

One of the year's major achievements for Avito was the active development of artificial intelligence. The company effectively joined the global race to integrate AI into business processes and user scenarios.

"Avito's global goal as a technology platform is to transform a classifieds marketplace into an intelligent assistant for millions of sellers and buyers. In 2025, Avito actively developed generative AI (creating texts and images) — developing its own A-Vibe and A-Vision models, which took leading positions in open rankings. The models have been released as open source so any developer can use them for their tasks free of charge."

Additionally, the company began testing Avi, an AI assistant — a digital helper that uses natural dialogue format to help users find relevant offers, formulate queries, and understand the differences between options.

Side Jobs as a Response to Labor Shortage

Another notable trend of the year is the growth in temporary employment. Against the backdrop of labor shortages, businesses are increasingly turning to one-off shift formats. According to Avito data, the number of such offers across Russia on average grew 43% year-over-year.

In February 2025, the company launched the "Avito Podrabotka" service, which offers workers short-term shifts with guaranteed payment within 24 hours of completion. Logistics and retail remain the most in-demand sectors.

"Such digital solutions are timely, since businesses need additional labor to sustain economic growth, while citizens need the opportunity to increase their total monthly income by combining side jobs with their main employment."

Entrepreneurs Take Center Stage

In 2025, Avito placed special focus on small and medium-sized businesses. Today, approximately 1.4 million entrepreneurs are registered on the platform—for them, according to Dmitry Gavrilenko, a safe and convenient environment has already been created for both launching and scaling their businesses.

"In supporting small and medium-sized businesses, we don't limit ourselves to improving the customer journey—we also conduct educational and interactive events. In October, we brought sellers together for a major business conference called 'Po Delu' in Yekaterinburg. There we discussed issues of competition, buyer behavior, and online commerce trends."

A new direction is business analytics. In October, the first issue of the review "Pulse of SMEs: Challenges, Trends and Advice" was presented, prepared jointly with the SME Corporation. The positive response from entrepreneurs and government representatives confirmed the demand for this format, which the company plans to develop further next year.

A New Year's Wish for the Industry

If the platform economy could ask for a New Year's gift, it would be simple yet ambitious: for as many people as possible to use the full potential of digital platforms.

"For the New Year, we traditionally wish each other to achieve everything we dream of," Dmitry concluded.

Regulation as a Point of Leverage

"This is an important step in the evolution of the digital economy, and its provisions will already be influencing the daily operations of platforms, buyers, and sellers next year. A conceptual framework has been defined, principles of legal regulation for the platform economy have been established, and the specifics of interaction between intermediary digital platform operators and partners have been outlined."

Artificial Intelligence — From Trend to Infrastructure

"Avito's global goal as a technology platform is to transform a classifieds marketplace into an intelligent assistant for millions of sellers and buyers. In 2025, Avito actively developed generative AI (creating texts and images) — developing its own A-Vibe and A-Vision models, which took leading positions in open rankings. The models have been released as open source so any developer can use them for their tasks free of charge."

Side Jobs as a Response to Labor Shortage

"Such digital solutions are timely, since businesses need additional labor to sustain economic growth, while citizens need the opportunity to increase their total monthly income by combining side jobs with their main employment."

Entrepreneurs Take Center Stage

"In supporting small and medium-sized businesses, we don't limit ourselves to improving the customer journey—we also conduct educational and interactive events. In October, we brought sellers together for a major business conference called 'Po Delu' in Yekaterinburg. There we discussed issues of competition, buyer behavior, and online commerce trends."