Islamic State (IS) militants from the extremist group’s Russian-speaking faction have released a propaganda app for Google’s popular Android platform. The app, called Caucas, is not available through the Google Play Store, where Android users obtain mainstream apps. Instead, it was made available for download on August 18 via links posted on sites such as …
Anews, a global news-reading app with a built-in behavioral advertising network, is about to launch its service in Brazil, the company’s press service told East-West Digital News. This Portuguese version is coming in addition to the existing ones in English, Russian, French, Ukrainian and Swedish languages. According to Anews CEO Vyacheslav Masenkov, news aggregators now occupy about 20% of the …
Russia is considering blocking access to Reddit for its citizens over complaints that the site is hosting information showing how to cultivate narcotics. According to a post from Roskomnadzor (the ‘Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications’) on Russia’s VKontakte (VK.com) social network, the organization has been in touch with Reddit …
Two Moscow-based funds, Emery Capital and Starta Capital, have invested $1.15 million in GeoCV, a startup which is developing a mobile app for creating 3D-models of interiors. According to Russian tech blog Firrma.ru, the funding will be used for sales tests in the Russian and US markets in the next few months. In a previous round …
With more than 85% of the smartphone market in Russia, Android continues to be the country’s favourite operating system. The great variety of devices within a $200 price range supporting this platform, among other things, has contributed to Android’s popularity with Russians who are happy to compromise some of their smartphone’s technical quality, such as …
Yandex launches multifunctional app for Android users in Russia Read More
Russia’s media watchdog has classified 640 blogs and online communities as equal to the media, making their content subject to certain restrictions, the watchdog said on its Twitter page Monday. Under the law adopted last year, bloggers and Internet users with public web pages visited by more than 3,000 people a day are eligible for inclusion …
Hundreds of Russian bloggers registered with media regulator Read More
Last week Driveway Software, a Silicon Valley startup that provides smartphone-based telematics solutions, announced that it raised $10 million in a funding round led by Ervington Investments, a property of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. A smartphone-deployed telematics platform designed to reward safe driving, Driveway aims to “disrupt the insurance industry.” Its iOS and Android app, paired with cloud analytics, …
Russian tech media group Rambler & Co has acquired a 51% stake in RCO, a major software publisher and service provider in the field of computational linguistics and unstructured data analysis. No details of the transaction were officially disclosed, but in an exchange with Kommersant Nikolai Davydov of Gagarin Capital estimated that it amounted to …
Rambler & Co acquires computational linguistics software company RCO Read More
YouTube has blocked the account of Chechen state television channel “Grozny” from uploading new content because of alleged violations of the site’s terms of service. According to the TV station, YouTube is acting for political reasons. “Given that [YouTube] is a subsidiary of the American company Google, it’s anyone’s guess how the ideology of the content …
YouTube blocks account of Chechen state TV station Read More
Russian taxi companies are seeking the imposition of restrictions on Internet-based taxi providers such as Uber, the Kommersant newspaper reported Monday. Established firms contend that Internet-based dispatchers are deliberately undercutting prices and operating illegally with impunity, according to Kommersant. “Aggregators do not have the same costs as we do: they don’t conduct medical examinations of …
Russian taxi firms lobby for restrictions on Internet services Read More
Inspired by the success of such apps as Gettaxi and Uber, two Moscow entrepreneurs have just launched GetNowBeauty, a mobile app that allows you to call to your home or office a hairdresser, facial aesthetic, hair removal or nail manicure specialist. To develop the service, former bank legal adviser and singer Anna Korona — whose real name …
President Vladimir Putin said he was in favor of only “minimal” restrictions on the Internet, but added that he expected Russian citizens to respond with a forceful promotion of Moscow’s views to any “hostile” publications online. Putin made the comments during a meeting with young IT professionals taking part in the National Education Youth Forum. In the meeting, which was held Tuesday in the Vladimir region, Putin …
Putin says he supports “minimal” Internet restrictions Read More
