Chinese online vendors have won the lion’s share of Russia’s cross-border e-commerce business over competitors from Europe and the U.S., spurred on by the ruble’s continued decline and a recession that has prompted Russians to shop for less expensive items. Chinese firms took 65 percent of Russian online orders from abroad in 2014, according to a report by the East-West Digital News. “In 2014, Russians placed about 50 …
This summer, for a short while, pages on Reddit and Wikipedia were technically banned in Russia. While the ban targeted only individual pages of these popular websites, roughly a third of Russian Internet providers lacked the tools necessary to block specific content within a site built on the https protocol. As a result the entire Reddit and Wikipedia became inaccessible …
Russian Internet censorship: A journey into the belly of the Kremlin’s media watchdog Read More
Starting from September 2015, the personal data of Russian citizens must be stored on servers located physically on the Russian territory. Adopted last year in a bid to affirm Russia’s digital sovereignty, this new law has provided many players with challenges due both to its demanding requirements and the ambiguity of some of its key provisions (see details in EWDN’s …
In a modest two-story house on Turk Street in San Francisco, a bunch of Russians, all in their 20s, live and work together to build an app they hope will change the way you choose a restaurant for dinner and, ultimately, the way customer service works. The spacious living room of the house serves as …
Similar to other parts of the world, mobile devices are becoming the dominant way to access the Internet in Russia. For many of us, the accessibility to the Internet on our smartphones makes it easy to quickly access information we need in a timely manner or to use messaging apps and read the news during …
Mobile devices, platforms and connectivity in Russia 2015 Read More
Just two months before the new Russian law on personal data storage will come into effect, many international players are implementing the necessary steps to comply with it. Thus last month Booking.com announced that all data from its Russian users will soon be transfered to a local data center. Preceding Booking.com were such companies as eBay, Google, PayPal, …
Global players challenged by new Russian law on personal data storage Read More
Last week, public attention was once again drawn to one of the most secretive and controversial figures of the Russian IT industry – Eugene Kaspersky, the founder of the prominent anti-virus company. Immediately after Edward Snowden revealed that the U.S. and British security services had worked to subvert the company’s anti-virus software to track users …
In a cross-border market that is still growing fast, reaching around $4 billion in 2014 for physical goods, the Russian payment issue is to be considered carefully by foreign online retailers. So far, not all of them have adapted their approach to the local specificities in the field of payments — which certainly stands as an obstacle to attracting more Russian …
Cross-border e-commerce: Adapting payment options to Russian online consumers Read More
Russia’s high-tech startups are getting better by the year, but innovators need to be more persistent to commercialize their solutions, said Pekka Viljakainen, advisor to Skolkovo president Victor Vekselberg. The Finn made the remarks at the final stage of the 2015 edition of the Startup Tour, which has taken in 12 cities and ventured abroad …
Russian startups mature, but need more tenacity, says Finnish Skolkovo executive Read More
The Russian Ministry of Industry and Commerce has come up with a new plan that outlines steps for Russia to have its own tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktop PCs by 2020 already. While imported gadgets currently account for virtually 100% of the domestic market, the share of foreign desktops should shrink to no more than 25%, according …
Russia moves to unseat Apple, Samsung and others from domestic market Read More
Only 76% of global emails sent to local Russian mailbox providers reaches the inbox and one in four messages are sent to spam or blocked, says Inbox Placement Benchmarket Report 2014 prepared by Return Path. The results showed trends that are common globally, however, some were quite specific for the Russian market. As for the …
Report: One quarter of commercial emails never reach Russian inboxes Read More
The volume of the Russian IT services market in 2014 declined by 15% in dollar terms to $6.57 billion. In ruble terms, the market grew by 2.2% due to the depreciation of the Russian currency, according to an IDC report cited by CNews.ru. The largest segment of the Russian market of IT services is system …
Russian IT services market declined by 15% in 2014 Read More
