Some 500 speakers at the annual three-day Russian Internet Forum (RIF) participated in dozens of conferences and forums on virtually everything from SEO, online PR and non-standard advertising to usability, group buying, payment systems, and online monetization issues.
Those concerned with legal issues and regulation were served with conferences on author’s rights, children’s Internet safety as well as a special discussion on “law 2.0.” Developers could actively discuss, among other themes, advertising-related technical issues, social game development as well as cloud platforms.
Mobile topics were analyzed at seminars on mobile platforms, geolocation and mobile Internet use in Russia, in particular.
Even such far reaching issues as “mobilizing everything one earth,” “the widening of the Russian and worldwide domain space” and “the pursuit of happiness”—at least from a search engine user point of view—were included in the program.
Participants noted that the conferences were of unequal quality, but some of them offered fresh figures, relevant company announcements and passionate discussions.
- Russian e-commerce: $8.75 billion in 2011
According to a presentation by Pavel Lebedev, an Internet studies expert at the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), e-commerce is more and more regarded as a common practice by Russian Internet users. As much as 24% of Russian Internet users, approximately 46.5 million people aged 18 or older at the end of 2010, made a purchase online in the last month, up 33% from last August. Among the most popular product categories are household appliances, cosmetics, clothing, travel services and a variety of other services.
This year, the overall volume of Russian B2C e-commerce could reach as much as $8.75 billion, said Lebedev.
- Paid online video sites in search of credibility
In a conference about the monetization of online video, Tatyana Golubovskaya, marketing director at Now.ru, a subscription-based video website launched two months ago, noted that major content providers are still suspicious when it comes to online video, especially in Russia. Content providers will consider the online sector more seriously as more professional content platforms develop.
As part of the discussion, Golubovskaya unveiled some of her site’s performance indicators. In the first 6 weeks, only 7% of registered users became subscribers but the site hopes to reach 15% in the next couple of months. Now.ru monthly subscriptions are available for 499 rubles, or $18. Interestingly, over 50% of the transactions have been made with banking cards, while broader information about the use of banking cards for online transactions estimates the average to be just 20%.
- Illegal content: Who should bear responsibility?
The conference on author’s rights brought no surprise: while all players declare themselves in favor of legal content, there is still widespread disagreement on who should be responsible for policing the Internet for illegal content.
Copyright holders consider that Internet companies should be responsible for deleting potentially litigious copyrighted content from their servers, but Internet companies claim they can do so only on a case-by-case basis upon demand from copyright owners. In October, 2010, Vkontakte and other key Internet players expressed their readiness to delete litigious copyrighted content from their servers upon demand from copyright owners. In January, 2011, in an incident further supporting the limited liability of Internet companies, a 26-year-old Muscovite was prosecuted for illegal distribution of recordings through Vkontakte. More recently, a Russian court has ruled that social networks are not responsible for individual user copyright violations.
In April, 2011, Google deleted from its search results the links to 446 pages of 106 pirate resources that had illegally borrowed content owned by Eksmo, a leading Russian publisher. The move was a result of a request filed by the publisher in accordance with US law on author rights. While removal of content remains hit or miss, the systematic monitoring for copyright infringement is impossible, insisted Google-Russia general manager Vladimir Dolgov. Moreover, he said at the conference, the music industry has seen its revenue grow, not fall, in recent years, as the Internet has developed in Russia.
In a bid for compromise, copyright holder representatives suggested that search engines give priority to legal video and music content.
Mikhail Ilyichev of RuTube, a leading Russian video hosting site, revealed that 81% of Russian Internet users are in favor of pirate content, with 58% watching pirate films because they are free, according to a study made by his company. The solution may lie in ad-funded models, Ilyichev said—a solution accepted by 83% of the respondents.
Some participants suggested substituting traditional exclusive rights, which lack flexibility, with the Creative Commons licensing system, which offers a diversity of options.
- Mobile Internet: Which audience for which content?
Opinions diverged regarding demographics for the Russian mobile Internet audience: while some believe that young people are the only significant users, primarily for entertainment purposes, other participants insisted that professionally active users in the age group from 30 to 40 using the mobile internet information and email access was an important demographic group.
Participants were unanimous, however, in their opinion that Russian mobile operators are not doing enough to develop, or stimulate the development, of mobile Internet content and service offers. Only MTS, one of Russia’s three major mobile operators, is seen as moving closer to the European model, which consists in offering a variety of application software and hardware.
RIF participants paid particular attention to Telefir, a Russian startup whose iOS, Android and Java mobile application includes radio, social networking and chat features.
- Geographic and gender targeting through social media
“Targeted advertising is good for people,” said Lev Gleyzer of Yandex, Russia’s search giant, in what seemed to be the motto of the conference. This comment follows in the wake of Yandex’s recent launch of Webvisor, an advanced tracking tool.
While actively discussing Facebook’s soon to appear targeting features based on user status or comments, participants expressed awareness and concern of privacy issues and the difficulty to fully respect the new feature as it provides data to third-party entities in partnership with Facebook.
- An open consortium to develop cloud computing
Alexey Nashchekin, VP for innovation at Rostelecom, announced the creation of an open consortium to develop a national cloud computing platform. The consortium is open to “all” market participants, from developers of applications to software integrators and hardware makers
Rostelecom, the national telecommunications operator, was appointed last March by the Russian government to develop such a platform.
Combined report from the EWDN team, RIF, Ifin.ru, IKS Consulting, Rostelecom, and WebPlanet
