Tucked away some 700 km east of Moscow in Ulyanovsk, the city of Lenin’s birth, the three-year-old startup Ecwid stands as a global leader in micro e-commerce, with over 270,000 registered merchants in 174 countries. Its cloud-based shopping widget can be embedded into any webpage, blog, or page on Facebook, where Ecwid serves more than …
The Russian government is making headway in persuading some of the world’s leading Internet players to block content that it has labeled as illegal. Roskomnadzor, a federal agency that oversees telecoms, IT, and mass communications, announced last Friday that it has come to an understanding on the matter with Twitter. In the first three weeks of …
Twitter acquiesces to Russia’s content-blocking while Google battles it in court Read More
Yandex (NASDQ:YNDX) today has announced that clients running campaigns on the Yandex Advertising Network will be able to enhance their contextual advertisements with the addition of images. Visuals in contextual ads instantly get the message across to the viewer and drive more potential customers to advertisers’ websites.
As of early 2013, approximately 50.1 million people in Russia aged 18 and older used the Internet on a daily basis, or 43% of the corresponding population, an 11.6% increase over the previous year, according to the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM), a leading Russian polling institute. The number of monthly unique users reached 64.4 million, FOM also …
More than 50 million Russian adults use the Internet daily Read More
The ownership of three major Russian tech companies – the search giant Yandex, the state-owned nanotechnology corporation Rusnano, and the mobile operator Megafon – is being affected by significant changes. Yandex, which raised $1.3 billion in its IPO back in May 2011, announced yesterday the closing of a secondary public offering of Class A ordinary …
Stocks of Yandex, MegaFon and Rusnano are changing hands Read More
After a week of rumors, PayPal confirmed last Friday that the Central Bank of Russia has approved its application to register as a full-fledged payment operator in Russia. Although PayPal considers Russia to offer “one of the biggest growth opportunities” for its development, it has taken no less than three years for the international payment …
After central bank approval, PayPal continues its “journey” to Russia Read More
In a new illustration of the vibrant activity of the Moscow venture scene, Maxim Shekhovtsov and Alexander Zhurba – founders of TexDrive, one of the city’s largest startup accelerators – announced last week the creation of a fund dedicated primarily to IT projects in Russia and around the world. Christened Genezis Capital, the fund actually …
New Russian high tech fund to invest up to $20 million in startups across the globe Read More
Oktogo.ru, a leading Russian online hotel booking company, has attracted $11 million in its fourth round of financing since its inception in 2010. The funds have been brought in by Russian entrepreneur Victor Sazhin in addition to some of the startup’s existing investors. These include Luxembourg’s Mangrove Capital Partners, France’s Ventech, and VTB Capital, the …
Last week, Ponominalu.ru, a Moscow-based online provider of show tickets, announced the completion of its first round of financing, securing $1.5 million from Buran Venture Capital at an undisclosed valuation. Ponominalu.ru is expected to use the investment capital to beef up its team, explore further regional opportunities, and offer the events ticket market in Russia its …
Buran invests in Russia’s nascent online ticketing market Read More
There are not too many Russians who participated in the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, this year, but this one is hard to miss. Yuri Milner, a Facebook investor and the founder of DST Global investment fund, was interviewed by Vanity Fair contributing editor Bethany McLean. During the interview, Milner predicted that …
SXSW: Yuri Milner predicts rosy future for social networks Read More
Russia’s first ever charity social network launched earlier this month to enable handicapped children in Siberia’s Tomsk region to publish blogs and charities across the world to donate online for the kids’ treatment, the five-year-old regional Ordinary Miracle charity fund for children announced. Elena Makarova, the fund’s president, said at a press conference at RIA …
Siberian children’s fund launches online charity network Read More
With daily trading volumes between $70 and $300 million, B2B-Center.ru, Russia’s main electronic trading platform, serves more than 100,000 clients from 100 countries. Last year, a consortium of investors led by Da Vinci Capital Partners, Insight Capital, Alpha Associates and Runa Capital acquired a minority stake in the company, valuing it at an approximate $160 million. CEO …
