In an attempt to shed some light on Russia’s Internet industry, the Russian edition of Forbes magazine released last week the 2013 edition of its “Top 30 Internet companies” ranking. The ranking is based on estimates of each company’s annual revenue. From a methodological standpoint, however, it leaves much to be desired.
Not only is it questionable to compare the turnover of companies based on pure ad models with that of online retailers – whose net sales could arguably be a more relevant indicator, – the exclusion of online travel categories from the ranking also seems arbitrary.
The decision made by Forbes analysts not to take into account what they have perceived as Russian branches of international companies is also open to debate. As a result, such important players as the daily deal site Groupon.ru and Google Russia have not been compared to their direct competitors.
Even leading online shoe and fashion retailer Lamoda.ru – which in no way is a local branch of an international company – has been excluded, perhaps due to the fact that German incubator Rocket Internet stands as its main shareholder.
Forbes analysts have judged it necessary to exclude companies whose turnover, in its better part, is not generated online. For this reason, such retailers as Svyaznoy and Euroset (mobile devices), as well as M.Video and Eldorado (consumer electronics and household appliances) do not appear in the ranking, in spite of their massive online sales.
Even more problematic are the cases of Ulmart and Exist, which have been excluded for the same reasons, despite of the fact that they started originally as online players and still generate the major part of their turnover online.
As for RBC, the ranking displays the group’s total revenues while almost one third is generated by print media and TV channels, if judging by its official financial results for 2012. A similar problem is posed by online/offline hybrid Enter.ru.
In the field of online retail, Forbes analysts have probably overestimated to a significant extent the revenues of Utkonos.ru and Wildberries.ru and possibly those of KupiVip.ru as well. Their estimates for Ozon.ru and Holodilnik.ru seem more accurate.
Top 30 Internet companies according to Forbes
1. Yandex (search) – $947 million
2. Mail.ru Group – $745 million
3. Utkonos (online retail) – $300 million
4. Wildberries (online retail) – $290 million
5. Ozon.ru (online retail) – $270 million
6. Holodilnik (online retail) – $262 million
7. KupiVIP (flash sales) – $256 million
8. RBC (online and print media) – $186 million
9. Biglion (daily deal site) – $175 million
10. Vkontakte (social network) – $150 million
11. Sotmarket (online retail) – $134 million
12. VseInstrumenti (online retail) – $127 million
13. Rambler-Afisha group (mainly online media) – $110 million
14. Wikimart (online retail marketplace) – $110 million
15. Utinet (online retail) – $92 million
16. Vasko (online retail) – $90 million
17. Notik (online retail) – $90 million
18. Game Insight (mobile games) – $90 million
19. Enter.ru (online-offline retail) – $84 million
20. SoftKey (software retailer) – $67 million
21. Pleer (online retail) – $60 million
22. Boutique (online retail) – $53 million
23. Innova (game Publisher) – $50 million
24. SuperJob (job vacancies) – $50 million
25. SUP Media (mainly online media)– $43 million
26. Next Media Group (diversified holding) – $41 million
27. Vigoda (daily deal site) – $41 million
28. WebMediaGroup (diversified group) – $40 million
29. Zeptolab (game publisher) – $40 million
30. Mamba (online dating) – $35 million
