The growing maturity of Russia’s online retail market will be the central theme discussed at the third annual eRetailForum, which will be held next week in the Borodino hotel in Moscow. The event will show how new processes, the consolidation of players, the arrival of overseas stores, and new regulation may contribute to reshaping the …
New models for Russian e-commerce to be discussed at eRetailForum 2013 Read More
Last week Oktogo.ru announced the acquisition of information portal Travel.ru for a price of “up to $2 million including stock incentives,” according to a company statement. Founded in 1998, Travel.ru is one of the oldest resources in the Russian-language online travel segment. It reaches approximately 1.7 million users each month with up to 5 million page …
Online hotel booking service Oktogo.ru acquires information portal Travel.ru Read More
Last Monday Russian social network VK.com, also known as Vkontakte, attracted a record breaking number of visitors, with 50.9 million users logging in. The figure, which was posted on founder Pavel Durov’s page, was provided by LiveInternet. Despite the efforts of Mail.ru Group’s Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir to compete with VKontakte in Russia and the former Soviet …
In its IFRS results report for H1 2013 published last week, Mail.ru Group, a leading, LSE-listed Russian Internet group, has made public the fact that over the course of July and August it disposed of its remaining $525+ million worth of Facebook equity, a total of 14.2 million shares. The group did not disclose the …
Mail.ru shuts the door on US equity by shedding last of Facebook shares Read More
Ruslan Gattarov, a Russian senator who has recently become an advocate for the privacy of Russian Internet users, continues his crusade against what he perceives as the unlawful actions of the world’s largest Internet companies in Russia. In late August, he asked the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and Roskomnadzor, the key federal …
Google and Facebook taken to task, Twitter suspected of user data misuse Read More
Last Friday, the First Deputy Director of the Presidential Administration, Vyacheslav Volodin, met with representatives of Russian media and Internet companies. Among the participants were top managers of leading Internet and media companies operating in Russia, including Arkady Volozh, the CEO of search engine giant Yandex, Maëlle Gavet, CEO of major e-commerce site Ozon.ru, and …
Kremlin meets with Internet industry leaders to discuss self-regulation Read More
While Russian retailers are experimenting increasingly with multichannel approaches, Goodwin, a Moscow-based startup that has just secured seed investment, is introducing a pioneering mobile commerce project. Inspired by the Amazon Flow concept, Goodwin lets smartphone owners buy products from “virtual storefronts” – which can be almost anything from an article in a magazine, to a …
In late August, Babadu.ru, an online children’s goods retailer, secured an investment of “a few million US dollars” from Target Ventures, a Russian fund that invests in the consumer goods industries. The funds will be used to strengthen the company’s existing projects and launch new ones, so that the company can reach a “leading position” …
Mail.ru Group’s first ever commercial offerings for international consumption – Jungle Heat and Poker Arena, where chips are bought with real money – are now available at Google Play and App Store. The announcement has been met with a mixed response. The app does not allow users to convert chips already paid for back into …
Mail.ru Group makes gambling available for the whole world Read More
Earlier this week, marking a new step in the development of its cross-border activity, Amazon started to ship consumer electronic and digital technology products directly to Russia, the Russian information portal Lenta.ru reported. In June, Amazon had already begun to ship household goods, clothing, shoes, and accessories to Russia. These news product categories came into …
Eruditor, a startup that helps users find hairdressers, fitness instructors, plumbers, or doctors via specialized service marketplaces, has just raised $12 million at an undisclosed valuation from Intel Capital, Frontier Ventures, and Runa Capital. The Moscow-based startup claims to have served 400,000 users since its launch in 2007 and provided more than 100,000 professionals with …
Digital Fortress, a US-based software developer with Russian roots, rolled out in mid-August its inaugural mobile app, an English-language instant messenger named Telegram. The app is now available on iTunes. Digital Fortress owner Pavel Durov, who is also the founder of Russia’s largest social network Vkontakte (VK.com), claimed that his company’s first product was launched …
VKontakte founder launches Telegram, a new instant messenger service Read More
