Access Industries, a US based industrial holding with international assets owned by prominent Russian-American businessman Leonard Blavatnik, has acquired a stake in Vigoda.ru (in Russian: “Advantage”), one of Russia’s numerous local deal sites.
Access Industries acquired over 30% of the site for between $5 and $7 million, reports Kommersant, a Russian business daily.
Vigoda.ru was founded in the summer of 2010 amid the “Groupon fever” that hit Russia at that time. Dozens of sites appeared on the market, most exact copycats with only slight variations on the American Groupon.com model. Among them was Darberry.ru, created in March 2010 and acquired by Groupon.com in August 2010.
Vigoda.ru currently covers over 50 Russian cities, including reatively small ones, where users can receive significant discouts from local merchants. In addition, the site has started to operate in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic states.
Vigoda.ru claims 1 million registered users and expects to generate $10 million in turnover this year. The site, however, operates in a highly competitive environement dominated by Groupon Russia (formerly Darberry.ru), which claims to control 80% of a market estimated at $200 – $250 million. Other top players are Biglion.ru, Kupikupon.ru, WeClever.ru and Kupibonus.ru.
