Launched in 2008 by Stanford graduates Maxim Faldin and Kamil Kurmakaev, Wikimart had the initial ambition of creating a Russian analog of eBay. Heavily funded by major US investment funds, the startup has now become a major marketplace offering its own products alongside nearly 2 million items from 1,500 third-party merchants. In this interview with the …
Yesterday Ozon Holdings, one of Russia’s most established e-commerce players, announced that it acquired a stake in LitRes, the leader in Russia’s fast growing – though still embryonic – domestic e-book market. Neither the size of the stake nor the amount of the transaction has been disclosed. Ozon presented the deal as a way “to further …
Ozon acquires stake in LitRes, the leading Russian e-book store Read More
East-West Digital News is proud to announce Russia’s first internationally-oriented industry event, the e-Days E-Commerce Conference, which will be held on June 6 in Moscow in partnership with comScore, InternetRetailer.com and PwC as well as with western chambers of commerce, Russian industry associations and online marketing agency BuzzFactory joining as co-organizers. Virtually all the industry’s leading players – including …
Industry leaders to discuss Russian and global e-commerce trends at Moscow conference Read More
The NASDAQ-listed Russian search giant Yandex is among the main contributors to a $4.1 million capital injection in SalesPredict, a SaaS technology provider helping B2B companies increase revenues using predictive analytics. Founded in 2012, SalesPredict combines and analyzes prospect and customer data from a company’s CRM database, marketing automation solutions, proprietary data sources, social media, and the …
Yandex invests in Israeli predictive analytics startup 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 …
While planning for a European trip, Alexander Artyukhin spotted a gap in the market for independent travel planning services. As a result he set up his own startup aimed at helping clients organize the details of their trips abroad, from hotel bookings and tickets to local recommendations. As the Russian entrepreneur was setting out on a …
Going it alone: Startup offers independent travel at the click of a mouse Read More
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 …
After his departure last month from the position of CEO at VKontakte (VK.com), the social networking site he founded, Pavel Durov announced on Facebook that he has established his “temporary HQ” in an undisclosed “Central European” country. Durov is now working on a new mobile social network, which should launch in autumn of this year. With …
Russia’s search giant Yandex has teamed up with Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE) in order to launch a new computer science faculty at the university. From September 2014 students will be able to enrol in ‘Applied Mathematics and IT’ and ‘Software Engineering’ courses at the faculty, which will offer 180 free places. According to the faculty’s …
Yandex opens new faculty at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics Read More
The birth of the .ru extension in April, 1994 has come to symbolize the beginning of Russia’s domestic internet history. Now, twenty years later, East-West Digital News co-founder Andrew Zotov, a pioneer of the industry, recalls these earlier times. The early days The Internet appeared in Russia well before 1994, with the first local service …
Celebrating the .RU – A look back over two decades of the Russian Internet Read More
Tel Aviv and Moscow – Wix.com Ltd (Nasdaq: WIX), a leading cloud-based web development platform, and REG.RU, Russia’s largest domain registrar and hosting provider announced a new partnership that will simplify and streamline the process for creating and managing a professional online presence. Customers purchasing a domain from REG.RU, who then create their website through the Wix …
Wix.com announces first partnership with a domain registrar, signing agreement with REG.RU Read More
Ozon Holdings, one of the most established players on the Russian e-commerce scene, announced today a $150 million funding deal with AFK Sistema, a Russian LSE-listed holding operating in a range of industries, and its subsidiary MTS, a leading mobile operator and retailer. [See Sistema’s investor presentation of the deal.] The transaction marks the most significant investment volume …
Ozon receives giant funding from AFK Sistema and MTS Read More
