# VK new logo (2021)

> VK launched a new logo in Oct 2021. Oct 2021: Mail.ru Group became VK.

## Key facts

- Brand: VK
- Launched: Oct 2021
- What changed: Oct 2021: Mail.ru Group became VK.
- Why: Mail.ru Group said it became VK because the connection between its many products was not obvious to users, so it adopted one brand for the whole company and ecosystem.
- Industry: Consumer internet
- Logos: https://rebrandlog.com/logos/vk-2021/before.svg (before), https://rebrandlog.com/logos/vk-2021/after.svg (after)

## The rebrand, explained

Mail.ru Group was a name that meant something to investors and almost nothing to the people using its services. In October 2021 the Russian internet company fixed that by taking the name of its most famous asset. East West Digital News reported that the London listed group was rebranding to VK, uniting most of its online activities around the abbreviated name of its social network VKontakte, and TASS carried the chief executive's explanation.

The group's statement put it plainly: market analysts and professionals know us as Mail.ru Group, but the connection between our projects was not always obvious to users, and it was time to change that. Chief executive Boris Dobrodeev told TASS that VK would be a single brand for the whole company, present not only at corporate level but inside products whose users had not seen how they fit together. He said the brand would highlight an ecosystem spanning communication and games, education, delivery of medicines and groceries, taxis, car sharing, online shopping and business tools.

The rollout was selective rather than total. Some services took the VK prefix: Boom became VK Music, Lovina VK Dating, Worki VK Jobs, and the classifieds service Youla was to become VK Classifieds, both as a standalone app and inside VKontakte. Others were left alone. Dobrodeev said the most recognisable projects would keep their own names, including Odnoklassniki, Mail.ru and VKontakte itself, while being linked to VK through shared technology, communications, an employer brand and a VK monogram on their logos. The international games arm My.Games would not change. All new products would launch under VK, and common services such as VK ID, VK Pay and VK Combo would tie the family together.

The company backed the decision with data. Ecosystem vice president Anna Artamonova said tests showed the VK name lifted interest in almost any new product, and that after Worki became VK Jobs its recognition rose 37 percent and intention to use it 50 percent. East West Digital News noted the irony that the group was renaming itself after a network it had only fully controlled since 2014, after a long and difficult saga.

This is brand architecture done with evidence rather than ego. Retiring a corporate name nobody used in favour of the one everyone already knew is the obvious move, and leaving strong brands like Odnoklassniki intact avoids throwing away equity for neatness. The cost is clarity of a different kind: VK now means both a social network and a sprawling conglomerate, and the line between them depends on a small monogram. For users, that may not matter. For anyone trying to understand what VK is, it might.

In short: Named after its most famous child.

## Sources

- https://vk.company/ru/press/releases/11015/
- https://vk.com/press/vk-new

## Cite this

Rebrand Log, "VK new logo (2021)", https://rebrandlog.com/rebrand/vk-2021/, last updated 2026-10-20.