Earlier this month Vladimir Malugin, PayPal’s regional director for Russia, announced the addition of the ruble as an official PayPal currency. Starting from mid-September Russian users of PayPal will thus be able to pay for purchases in stores, accept payments, transfer money to other users’ accounts, and withdraw money from bank accounts in the Russian national currency. …
VKontakte Ltd, the owner of Russia’s leading social network Vkontakte.ru (VK.com), is seeking government registration of the VK.COM trademark in Russia far beyond the Internet business. The company’s application for the specific look and font of its brand name was formally accepted and granted priority status on July 26, 2013.
Earlier this month Mail.Ru Group announced the launch of a new charity service, “Good Mail.Ru” (in Russian: Dobro Mail.ru) This site presents over 30 charities with over 115 projects across Russia. NGOs involved include the WWF, Spring at Heart, the Life Fund, and the Nastenka Fund. Mail.ru users can make a donation or by submit …
Leading Russian payment company Qiwi, which launched an in-house venture activity in early 2013, announced earlier this month its first investment. The group invested in Carbay.ru, a web and mobile service created in May of this year to help professional car dealerships place classifieds on a variety of third-party online resources, including social networks. “Not only …
Qiwi announces first venture investment deals and an enlarged investment focus Read More
On August 20, U.S. online retailer Amazon applied to register the trademark “Amazon Instant Video” with the Russian patent office. The Amazon Instant Video service allows users to buy movies and TV shows for viewing on computers, tablets, and other devices. So far, the service has been available to users in the U.S., Canada, and …
Amazon preparing to launch online video service in Russia Read More
The Federal Customs Service (FCS) of Russia may add between 300 and 500 new employees before the end of the year to help deal with the growing number of parcels sent to Russia from abroad. The Ministry of Communications, also charged with reforming the inefficient Russian Post, requested this staff expansion for the Customs service …
Agelon, an online Russian research service for high-precision marketing surveys, announced last month that it has raised 11 million rubles (about $330,000) in its most recent round of funding led by the Moscow Seed Fund, the City of Moscow’s venture investment arm. The other member of the investor consortium is the Innovation Laboratory, a Moscow-based …
Moscow investors pump $330,000 into Agelon’s high-tech marketing tool Read More
The new Russian legislation intended to stop online piracy came into effect on August 1. A long-awaited victory for copyright holders, the law facilitates the prosecution of website owners violating intellectual property rights and enables courts to issue warrants to block websites that violate copyright laws if illegal content is not removed within 24 hours. The legislation …
Russia’s anti-piracy law comes into effect; key players and analysts divided on its impact Read More
Moscow-based online flight ticket retailer Onetwotrip.com, one of the fastest growing startups on the Russian scene, has fully acquired DealAngel, a startup that has developed an advanced hotel booking technology. The news, revealed earlier this week by the Russian business daily Vedmosti, was confirmed to East-West Digital News by Onetwotrip’s founder and CEO Peter Kutis.
A minority stake in Banki.ru, one of the largest B2C banking portals on the Russian-language Internet, has changed hands. Finam Global, a Moscow-based investment fund, sold it earlier this month to Russia Partners Technologies, a high tech focused fund run by Russia Partners. Philipp Ilyin-Adaev, the founder and CEO of Banki.ru, hopes that the involvement …
Russian-US PE fund Russia Partners acquires minority stake in Banki.ru Read More
Western Internet companies operating in Russia and Russian Internet giants and media companies are the targets of investigation and potential new legislation on personal data. The committee for information policy of the Council of the Federation – the upper house of the Russian Parliament – has been investigating whether user agreements of major Internet sites …
VKontakte.ru (VK.com), Russia’s number one social network, has officially offered employment to Edward Snowden, the fugitive American government contractor wanted by the United States for leaking details of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. Just hours after Russia granted Snowden one-year asylum last Thursday and let him leave the transit zone of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, …
Russia’s first social network VKontakte seeks to hire Snowden Read More
