Banki.ru, one of the largest B2C banking portals on the Russian-language Internet, has acquired Finparty.ru, a resource offering informal coverage of the finance industry, IKS Media reported last week. Founded in 2010, Finparty also includes Finparty Events, an agency that organizes corporate events.
The Russian government demonstrated earlier this month that it not only knows how to obstruct Internet freedom, but also uphold it. A high-level government official who appeared to have threatened to block Twitter in Russia has been officially reprimanded. Maxim Ksenzov, the Deputy Director of Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom market watchdog, complained on May 16 …
Russian authorities vs. Twitter: Threat of censorship over, or just over for now? Read More
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out on a number of internet and business related issues in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote. In the run up to the St Petersburg Economic Forum, which will go ahead without many Western CEOs warned by their governments to stay away, Medvedev accuses the West of …
Medvedev on Russia’s response to the West’s “Soviet” approach to business Read More
In early May TMT Investments, a UK-headquartered venture fund backed by Russian businessmen, announced the completion of a $200,000 investment in Israeli startup Drippler, in exchange for a 1.86% share. Drippler is a mobile and web-based discovery service helping people adopt everyday technology in an easy and interactive way. Drippler provides users with daily tech …
TMT Investments injects $200,000 into Israeli startup Drippler Read More
The Russian-language Internet, which had remained an area of relatively free expression until recently, may soon see its landscape thoroughly reshaped. Haunted by newly resurrected images of the West as an adversary both on and offline, the federal authorities are putting together a package of new internet restrictions, which opposition-minded observers see as the prelude …
In late April, Relevant Media, a project of Internet startup developer Fastlane Ventures, raised $1.4 million from a group of undisclosed individual investors. With its three properties – the “how-to” portal Kakprosto.ru, women’s site Justlady.ru, and Pinterest clone Pinme.ru, – Relevant Media claims an audience of 18 million unique visitors, making it one of the 10 largest Russian Internet media …
Three weeks after Russia asserted that Crimea and the city of Sebastopol have become part of its territory, Facebook and Russian-language social network Vkontakte still categorize the inhabitants of these regions as being located in Ukraine. Meanwhile, two other major social networks, Odnoklassniki (Classmates) and Moi Mir (My World), have already classified them as being part …
Russian and international media have been abuzz in recent days over a new round of website blockings by the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor). This comes on the heels of changes in the mediascape which have been perceived as setbacks to the liberal media in the …
Russian authorities tighten screws on online media Read More
German media company BURDA is one of the biggest publishers in Russia, producing titles including fashion magazine Burda, women’s mag Liza and its children’s version Liza Girl, tech journals Chip and Computer Bild and men’s mag Playboy. Worldwide the firm has been making strategic investments in digital media projects for more than a decade, and …
Hackers have taken down several Russian media website in the past week and alleged attacks on defense infrastructure in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Among the latest victims, on March 7, was the website of Rossiyskaya Gazeta, one of the largest Russian dailies, the paper of record of the Russian government, and the parent …
Russian government paper’s site taken down by pro-Ukraine hackers Read More
Surfingbird.ru, the first collaborative content discovery service on the Russian-language Internet, has raised $2.5 million from Russian fund Klever Internet Investments. The transaction, revealed last week by the Russian business daily Vedomosti, was confirmed to East-West Digital News by the startup’s CEO Sergey Shalaev. Launched in 2011, SurfingBird is inspired by US site StumbleUpon.com, which …
Russian-language content discovery service Surfingbird closes $2.5 million Series B round Read More
Gazprombank, an affiliate of the state-controlled gas giant, now has a controlling stake in WebMediaGroup, after acquiring the stake previously held by Rostelecom’s president Sergey Kalugin. WebMediaGroup’s other shareholders are Leader Innovations and individual investors. Gazprombank and Leader Innovations had acquired minority stakes in the company in 2011.
