The Kaptoxa virus, which was used to steal more than 70 million credit card numbers in the United States, was “partly written in Russian”, according to a Wall Street Journal article published on January 17. The newspaper cited a report prepared by iSight Partners Inc. and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Kaptoxa, incidentally, is …
The Kartoxa virus: Blame corporate complacency, not Russian hackers Read More
Yesterday, Moscow-based venture fund Target Ventures announced it has acquired the Afisha-Rambler Group’s 49% stake in TimePad, a startup that offers online tools for event organizers. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed. The new shareholder may provide the startup with a capital injection in the near future, the fund’s Mikhail Lobanov told …
Target Ventures acquires Afisha-Rambler Group’s stake in TimePad Read More
The 2012 Olympic Games were accurately described by many as the world’s “first social Games” for the unprecedented ways in which digital communication connected athletes, media and fans. For the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this meant promoting the Games online played out more or less like you’d expect, primarily happening on Facebook and Twitter. But this year’s Winter Olympics — …
Vkontakte, the Olympics’ social media secret weapon Read More
A legal, ad-funded movie offer is now available on Vkontakte (VK.com), Russia’s leading social network, reported news agency RIA Novosti last week. Star Media, a major Russian producer and distributor, is among the first copyright holders to have worked with Vkontakte to make its movies available on the network. In 2013, after years of laisser-faire, …
Leading social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki introduce free legal video offer Read More
Moscow – Tvigle has launched its app for Sony PlayStation 3, bringing Russia’s biggest library of free-to-view licenced video content to more than 1.2 million PS3 consoles in Europe’s largest online video market. PS3 owners can watch the whole Tvigle library of more than 20,000 films and TV shows, including global hits such as “The Walking …
Tvigle becomes first online broadcaster on PS3 in Russia Read More
Universarium.org, a month-old Russian online education project backed by leading Russian universities, is offering its first set of full lectures this Monday. Officially launched on December 23, 2013 as a “Christmas and New Year present,” the effort, backed by the Russian news agency RIA Science and the government-owned Agency for Strategic Initiatives, is designed to …
Millions of Russians ushered to free e-education as Universarium comes online Read More
Earlier this week Russian search giant Yandex announced that Facebook has granted it full access to its “firehose” of public data. Thus not only can Yandex search for people and company pages on Facebook, it can also search for content marked “Public” from users in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Turkey. At present, Facebook posts from …
Public content from Facebook users to be displayed in Yandex search results Read More
CTC Media, a major Russian media company, has signed an agreement with KupiVIP.ru, Russia’s leading fashion flash sales site, on the joint creation of a new brand of women’s fashion items. The online brand and shop – the first of its kind on the Russian media scene – is scheduled for launch in April of …
CTC Media teams up with KupiVIP to launch new online fashion brand Read More
Russian entrepreneurs with global ambitions tend to dream of conquering Europe or the USA. However, Denis Nemtsev decided to try something more “outside of the box”. He travelled to Thailand to set up HipFlat, a real estate search startup which has just secured $335,000 from international angel investors. The funding round, which was oversubscribed and …
Russian entrepreneur raises $335,000 to launch real estate search engine in Thailand Read More
The Russian cross-border sales market, which is expected to reach or exceed $3 billion this year, has been the object of two recent studies. The first report, conducted by the Higher School of Economics (HSE) this past summer, analyzes the effects of cross-border sales on the Russian retail market. The research was ordered by the …
Cross-border sales: Foreign e-merchants do not always have price advantage Read More
Life.Sreda, a Russian VC fund, announced last week that it has invested $730,000 in myWishBoard.com, a platform enabling online private fundraising by friends and families for fulfilling personal wishes. With this P2P service, users can contribute to a present for someone, and when a required amount is collected it is wired to the beneficiary’s e-account. The …
Life Sreda invests $730,000 in P2P platform myWishBoard.com Read More
Competition in the saturated Russian online travel sector is fierce, and one of the main players last week took the dramatic step of a complete rebranding as it seeks to differentiate itself from its rivals. Skolkovo resident Oktogo, which was supposed to be read OK-to-go (a fact lost on many), has adopted the name Travel.ru, …
Oktogo.ru raises $5 million and switches to Travel.ru Read More
